Double Trouble
by sakurademonalchemist
Summary: Adopted at a young age, Tatsuki learned early on how to lead a double life. However, her two sides are about to cross when Ichigo gains his soul reaper powers. Can she find about her past while maintaining her two sides? STRONG FEM Harry!
1. Chapter 1

"Adhara-nee-san~!" yelled Yachiru.

Adhara paused. She was the only other female in Squad Eleven, and she encouraged the lieutenant to call her big sis.

Even though Yachiru was actually ten times older than she was.

Adhara was a bit of an enigma to the other squads. While she was the only girl who had managed to get Zaraki's attention (thereby securing a spot in Squad eleven, to her delight) she was also one of the rare soul reapers who didn't bother fighting with her sword.

She could use her shikai, yes, but she almost never used it while fighting hollows with her captain.

When questioned about that by Yumechika, she would shrug and say that her sword's power wasn't useful fighting hollows.

Besides, since she could crack a hollow's mask with only her fists, she was ranked as the fourth strongest member in Squad Eleven. No easy feat for a female.

Then again, they had mistaken her for a boy for the first two months. If Ikkaku hadn't accidentally knocked her into the small pond in the barracks, they would most likely still think she was a boy.

"What's up, little sis?" grinned Adhara.

Adhara had spiky short raven black hair (she had never been to a barber once) with a cheerful grin. Her rather bright emerald and gold eyes were not hidden by her glasses. She wore the shihakusho casually with her only concession to being a female being the necklace Yumechika had given her after she helped him prank Ikkaku.

Well, that and an intricate chain that she always wore as a good luck charm.

"Can we go get some sweets?" begged Yachiru.

"Fine, but don't go overboard. Unohana-taicho said she would have my head if I let you overindulge yourself with sweets again."

"Awww... Hey, did you hear? They're looking for someone to post in Karakura town for the next twenty years!"

"What happened to the afro idiot?" she asked bored.

"Apparently he wasn't getting to the scene in time to prevent the living from being hurt. They're reassigning him to another district!"

"A post in the world of the living...sounds like fun!"

"I thought you would say that. That's why Ken-chan recommended you!"

Adhara paused in surprise.

"Kenpachi-taicho recommended me for the post?"

"He said you were starting to get really bored keeping the men in line when it comes to the girls, and that this would be a great way to improve your standing with the other squads!"

"Hold up. Why would Kenpachi Zaraki care about my standing in the other squads so long as I keep my position in his?" asked Adhara.

"Because you've somehow managed to improve our squad's reputation!"

"This should be interesting..." grinned Adhara.

* * *

"Fourth Seat Adhara. You are hereby assigned to the world of the living, in the district of Karakura town. Your probationary period will last no less than twenty years. Should you prove sufficient in keeping the hollow population under control, you will be permanently assigned to Karakura until further notice," said Kiyone.

"Sounds like fun. Anything else I should be warned about?"

"The hollow count in Karakura is higher than any other district in Japan, so watch out. You are expected to report to your captain once a week at the very least. You'll be carrying a soul pager, but any other items will be on your paycheck."

"Great... which means I have to pay for everything except a cheap soul pager..." said Adhara.

"Not quite... There are a selection of approved pagers that you can look through."

That brightened her mood a bit.

* * *

Tatsuki was bored out of her mind. Her double life had finally come back to haunt her. Since she was now stationed in her own town, she no longer needed to rely on her special time turner to keep her other side a secret.

What her classmates didn't realize was that they had a soul reaper/witch working with them for the past eight years. And she had been a witch since she was seven.

She resisted the urge to sigh. While her time turner helped her keep from revealing her rather late nights, it didn't really help her dilemma.

As Tatsuki, she was one of the strongest magical girls to come out of Karakura's exclusive magical academy. Her specialty revolved around wandless magic and channeling her powers through her fists rather than the normal focus. Though she did have a wand at home, she didn't like using it.

The thing was too flimsy to be of any real use.

As Adhara, she was the only female aside from Yachiru who could survive the male dominated environment that was squad eleven. And that was only because she had found a way to channel kido into her fists, which meant she didn't need to use her sword all the time.

Because of her tendency to solve her disagreements with her squad through beating the crap out of them, she had been given the fourth seat. It helped to cut down on her fights inside her own squad.

It was only because her time turner went back one week at a time that she had managed to keep her double life a secret.

One week she was Tatsuki, martial arts black belt and protector of Orihime. With a flip of her time turner, she became Adhara, the protector of the female Shinigami and dispenser of pain to lecherous soul reapers.

It didn't hurt that Adhara wore glasses and she didn't.

"Hey Tatsuki, want to go hang out later?" asked Orihime.

Orihime Inoue was her best friend, but her sense of taste was completely out of whack. Tatsuki had vowed a long time ago to never eat anything of Orihime's without someone else (namely Ichigo since he was twice as wary of eating the girl's concoctions) trying and approving of it first.

Tatsuki was about to reply when she heard her pager go off. Only Ichigo seemed to hear it...then again _he_ was the cause of the large number of Hollows appearing in town to begin with.

"I can't. I have to go to cram school later," said Tatsuki.

Which, while true, was not the complete story. Tatsuki was only able to maintain her double identity because her cram school (classes at the magical academy) doubled as a school for kido. It was because of the school that she had been able to become a soul reaper in the first place.

Orihime looked disappointed, until Tatsuki told her they could hang out tomorrow. She could use her time turner to keep that promise.

* * *

Adhara responded promptly to the summons, and killed the hollow before it could properly damage anything. She didn't realize someone was behind her until afterwords.

It was Uryu Ishida, one of the rare people in her class who could see ghosts properly. She didn't know why his spirit control was so good, but she knew he was trouble.

It was a very good thing she only resembled Tatsuki at the moment, otherwise it would cause uncomfortable questions she didn't want asked.

"How about a challenge, Soul Reaper?" he asked coolly.

"Not a chance."

He seemed surprised by that.

"Why not? Afraid to take on a Quincy?" he shifted his glasses again.

"It would be _my_ ass on the line when a Menos is summoned because of that orange haired idiot's spiritual pressure. I would rather not fill out the paperwork from that mess..." she growled.

Uryu clearly caught the hinted fact that Kurosaki had zero control over his large amount of spiritual pressure. He was also surprised that the soul reaper (who he didn't recognize in the dark night, thankfully) hadn't done something about it.

"It's not my problem how the idiot deals with his powers, but I'm the one currently in charge of the town. And if you think for a second I'm going to risk my probationary spot in the world of the living for some stupid contest, then I'll have to deal with you the same way I deal with the idiots in my squad..." warned Adhara.

Uryu took a step back. He sensed something about the female soul reaper (though how he knew it was a girl was a miracle, considering her hair was so short) that warned him of impending violence.

He was almost tempted to crush the hollow bait just to annoy her...or force her to fight against him.

Until he saw her eyes gleaming in the moonlight. They were emerald with streaks of gold that made them glow, hidden behind sensible glasses.

Out of all the opponents he had faced over the years, hollows, his father... this girl terrified him in ways he couldn't imagine.

Adhara watched Uryu make a run for it, clearly intimidated by her spiritual pressure. It was leaking her clear intent to kick his ass if he tried anything.

It was a good thing she wore contacts to school. Her eyes were so noticeable he would have figured it out pretty quick.

* * *

"I hate May."

"Why?" asked Ichigo.

"Spring cleaning. It's a total pain in the ass!" said Tatsuki.

In more ways than one. Unohana had suggested a few years ago when Squad eleven _finally_ had a second female member (other than Yachiru, who didn't count because she was so young) that the squads cleaned out their barracks by themselves.

Apparently one of the squad four members had heard about spring cleaning from the world of the living. He was now in hiding from the various soul reapers who were now forced to throw away random trash they had accumulated over the centuries.

Since Adhara was the only female with any idea of _how_ to clean properly, she had enforced the new suggestion with a steel fist.

"If I have to suffer through this crap, _you_ have to suffer," were the by now infamous words.

Unohana didn't seem to mind the rather large increase in bruises, bloody noses and broken bones caused by Adhara's actions.

As a result, the weaker members learned to clean their barracks without making a complaint. It was the only reason they were even alive.

"I don't think spring cleaning is that bad..." said Ichigo.

"I have to help my...classmates...clean out the rooms. Students at the cram school I go to have to clean out the dorms, whether they live there or not."

Which was partially true. The students at the magical academy _did_ clean out the school every May. They just volunteered for it for extra credit. (On the plus side, they were permitted to use magic, provided they didn't destroy anything in the process.)

* * *

Tatsuki went straight home from school. She had cleaned her room a week early to avoid doing it in May.

"Welcome home dear. How was school?"

"Boring, as usual."

"And work?"

"I'll have to dispense a serious amount of pain to get those lazy bums to clean. It'll be great stress relief," said Tatsuki smirking.

Her parents not only knew about the fact that their daughter was a soul reaper, they encouraged her. Even though she wasn't their own flesh and blood.

(Confused? Let me give you a proper back story...)

* * *

_Flashback_

_A couple on vacation were traveling through Surrey when they found a small girl abandoned on a cold doorstep with little more than a thin blanket to keep the cold away._

_Being kind people, they took her in and later adopted her as their own, naming her Tatsuki._

_Five years after adopting the child, they were delivered a double shock._

_Not only was the girl a natural magic user...she was also quite dead. She had died the same night they had found her, only a few hours earlier._

_Thanks to spurts of accidental magic through the years, Tatsuki had remained corporeal enough to fool even the soul society. Two years after she began her studies in magic, she was given a rare treat for bizarre cases like hers (apparently this had happened before, and more than once)._

_They sent her to the soul society to become a soul reaper. In order to protect her identity in the world of the living, the child was given two things._

_One was a rare and powerful version of the time turners that the English used. It had the power to reverse time for one week increments. _

_The other was a new name that she would only use in the soul society. She choose Adhara, after looking up the constellations in the sky._

_End Flashback_

* * *

Adhara paused when she felt the wave of power hit her. Then her phone rang.

"Yeah?"

"_I'm soooo sorry, Adhara-san! There was a mix up in the paperwork and Kuchiki Rukia was sent to Karakura town by mistake! Could you find and alert her to the problem?"_

Adhara felt a sense of foreboding.

A mix up in paperwork. A wave of unexplainable power that comes from the direction of Ichigo's house. And the second hollow which she had been trying to find for the last two hours was suddenly gone completely.

"I'll tell her..."

She had a sneaking suspicion that Rukia had run afoul of a hollow and had given Ichigo her powers to save their lives.

Which meant her days just got infinitely more complicated.

* * *

_**The Next Morning...**_

Tatsuki heard the excuse of a truck hitting the Kurosaki home, and knew it was the work of Rukia. Having her suspicions confirmed when the announcement of a sudden transfer student didn't improve her mood either.

At least she got some entertainment from watching the noble girl beating up Ichigo.

Though she actually couldn't wait to see the look on Rukia's face when she told her there had been a paperwork mix up.

"Hey, your name was Rukia, right?" asked Tatsuki, trying to keep a straight face.

Rukia nodded. She was still getting used to the gigai she was in.

"I have a message from Kiyone in 13. Did you know there had been a paperwork mix up?" said Tatsuki.

They were completely alone in the hallway, and there wasn't anyone nearby below.

Rukia's face was a mixture of shock, horror and disbelief. Tatsuki took a picture of the noble girl having a poleaxed look on her face.

"You... You know who I am?" she finally asked.

Tatsuki's grin did not inspire confidence.

"Squad Eleven, seat Four. I won't tell anyone about your little...mishap and illegal transfer if you keep your mouth shut about the fact that I lead a double life in the world of the living. Deal?"

Rukia nodded. The last thing she wanted was for Ichigo to be killed so soon after gaining his powers.

"How have you managed to keep it a secret for so long?" she asked.

Tatsuki smirked, and put on her glasses. That was when Rukia finally recognized her.

"Fourth seat Adhara?"

"Now you see how I managed to keep up a double life. I've found that if magic is present in the air, souls become visible. And it turns out that I happen to be a magical girl, so I can pretend to still be alive when I'm not."

"How...how old were you when you died?"

"Exactly eighteen months, apparently. My mother and father found me on a doorstep with only a thin blanket and adopted me a week later. I didn't find out I was dead until I was six, and went into the academy a year later."

Rukia had heard the tale of the now infamous Adhara of Squad Eleven.

The youngest person ever to be accepted into the Academy, she made a name for herself by beating the hell out of the other soul reapers without her sword.

It took her four years to graduated, and she was immediately accepted into Squad Eleven.

Zaraki had caught her beating the crap out of ten of his men, and had been suitably impressed she had beaten them all without her sword.

A year later she was appointed the fourth seat, and had been there ever since.

"Are you going to tell Ichigo?"

"No. I have been living a double life for so long that someone finding out about my secret terrifies me."

Rukia could acknowledge that.

* * *

Adhara approached Lord Kuchiki. She didn't like doing this, but she had been attending his calligraphy class for years, and she was quite possibly the only person outside his clan he could tolerate for more than twenty minutes without being forced.

Despite her reputation for being the most violent girl in the Gotei 13, Byakuya had caught her a few times reading old books quietly, ignoring insults that would normally have someone walking away with broken bones or a black eye.

When he had finally asked why she had been so quiet and calm, she had shocked him by admitting she was only that violent so her squad would respect her and leave her alone.

Byakuya looked up when she approached. She bowed respectfully and told him point blank...

"Your sister was the victim of a paperwork mix up, and was gravely injured. She's currently hiding in the world of the living until her powers get back up to a level where she can return."

His eyebrows shot up.

"Thank you for informing me."

She bowed again, and left.


	2. Chapter 2

Rukia nearly shrieked at Tatsuki when she cheerfully informed the girl that she had told her brother about her problem.

"Chill out! I didn't tell him everything, only that you had gotten your assignment mixed up and that a hollow had caught you by surprise. All he knows is that you're stuck here until you get enough spiritual power to go back on your own."

Rukia obviously didn't see how Tatsuki had given her the perfect excuse for losing her powers. So she spelled it out for her.

"Let me rephrase this in a way you can use. As far as the soul society will be concerned, you simply bought a faulty gigai, and couldn't get a replacement."

Light came into Rukia's eyes. Now she understood how Tatsuki had helped her. It was a plausible excuse for losing her powers, and she had already told the proper officials that she had run afoul of a hollow.

She had a good excuse for remaining in Karakura for at least a few months. All Tatsuki had to do was deliver the message that she had gotten a bad gigai and couldn't get out.

Now all she had to do was keep Ichigo from being found out, and she could return home without getting into too much trouble.

Rukia chuckled.

"Who knew that someone like you would be around when I would need a good excuse and help the most?" she said aloud.

Tatsuki grinned.

"What can I say... I'm a sucker for protecting the weak. Even if it means putting myself in danger."

Rukia could acknowledge that. She had seen the various scars that Adhara had accumulated over the years fighting idiots who picked on those weaker than them in the public baths.

Adhara was well known for being friends with most of Squad four because she kept her own squad in line.

A sudden, evil idea came to Rukia's mind.

"Could you possibly help me train Ichigo? As Adhara, not Tatsuki."

"Oh? What do you have in mind?"

"His sword is nothing more than a big ball of spirit energy. He needs to learn that it can, and will break if he encounters someone with a shikai."

"Oh... In that case I can't. My shikai isn't useful in a real fight. It always feels cheap when I use it to end fights."

"What kind of power does it have?" asked Rukia.

"It's a kido type, do I really need to say any more? It's bad enough I got a kido type that I can't use in my squad."

"Why not?" asked Rukia.

"Squad eleven has an unspoken rule. Only use your zanpakuto for straight damage. Kido type swords are looked down on, and you're perceived as weak if they find out. That is one of the main reasons I don't use my sword."

"What's the other reason?"

"My shikai... Well using it to end a fight feels cheap. If I win a fight, I want it to be because I had beaten something into submission, not because of some cheap trick."

That, at least, Rukia could understand.

"But I can get him used to fighting a soul reaper head on. He could use the exercise."

The evil look the two shared sent shivers down Ichigo's spine, and he looked around for the cause.

* * *

"Who are we meeting Rukia?" asked Ichigo. The bad feeling from earlier hadn't gone away.

"The soul reaper currently in charge of Karakura. She should be here soon."

"Wait, I thought you were in charge of the town?"

"There was a mix up in the soul society. They sent me to Karakura by mistake. She just recently got the post."

Ichigo sensed more than saw the punch. He ducked and glared at the person behind him.

Then he gaped. She looked identical to Tatsuki, only with glasses!

"Tatsuki?"

She smirked evilly.

"The name is Adhara, from Squad Eleven!" she announced.

Rukia had an evil grin as she told Ichigo, "This is one of the most infamous females in the entire soul society. Not only was she one of the youngest ever to achieve the rank of Soul Reaper, she's also the only other female to willingly join squad Eleven, which is almost all male."

Ichigo was still trying to get over the fact that Tatsuki was a soul reaper.

"Just to be clear Ichigo, I don't care if you call me Tatsuki in school or when I'm wearing my contacts, but you'll have to call me Adhara when I'm wearing my glasses or I will strangle you."

Ichigo did the only sane thing he could think of. He fainted from shock overload.

The two girls laughed evilly.

An hour later...

"Ow... I could have sworn I just saw Tatsuki in a soul reaper uniform..."

"You did," smirked Adhara, right in Ichigo's face.

"GAH!"

"And the name is Adhara, baka. I've managed to keep my other life a secret for over eight years, and you are NOT going to ruin it for me."

"Since when are you a soul reaper?" he asked, panicking.

"Since I graduated the Academy at age twelve. Honestly Ichigo, how stupid do you take me for? I have an easy trick that allows me to remain Tatsuki and Adhara."

"Oh yeah, what?"

"Can't tell you. Trade secret and all that."

"Rukia, why didn't you tell me she was a soul reaper when we saved Orihime?"

"I didn't tell her until _after_ I realized you had managed to become one yourself. She wasn't supposed to be _in_ Karakura to begin with!"

Ichigo looked at Rukia for explanation.

"I was assigned to the world of the living to cover for another soul reaper who had fallen sick, but they gave me the wrong jurisdiction by mistake. By the time I found that out, you had already become a soul reaper," explained Rukia.

"Fortunately for her, I was willing to cover up why she's still here."

Ichigo felt like his head was about to explode. One of his closest friends was a soul reaper like Rukia, she had been assigned to the wrong place by mistake, and one of his closest female friends was in charge of their town.

"Tell you what. I'll give you an entire night to assimilate this new information in exchange for you keeping this to yourself."

"Do I have a choice?" asked Ichigo.

"Not really, no. You even speak a single word about this outside of Rukia, and I will show you why I'm known as 'Dragon Fist Adhara' in the soul society," said Adhara a little too cheerfully.

"She means it. There's a reason why she's the only female who can stand working in Squad Eleven," said Rukia.

"What's the difference between you and her?" asked Ichigo.

"You get to explain while I do my job. Later."

"So there are thirteen squads in the soul society," said Ichigo.

"Yes, each of them with a captain and lieutenant. Though there are a few without a lieutenant..."

"And each one has a different type of soul reaper..."

"Sometimes they go into the Kido corps or the Royal Guard," said Rukia.

"Okay, I think I can understand all of this, except for one little problem..." said Ichigo, his eyebrows twitching.

"What?"

"Why did you have to use your crappy drawings?" he asked.

Rukia got mad and whocked him a good one.

Which is when Ichigo wanted to learn more about the squads, without the drawings...

* * *

Ichigo couldn't believe that Tatsuki ignored her soul pager during class. Rukia always dragged him out of the classroom whenever hers went off.

Lately they had found the hollows they were chasing already dead, with Adhara (she had given Ichigo a serious black eye when he accidentally called her Tatsuki with her glasses on) already at the scene.

She still refused to explain how the hell she kept beating them to the scene and yet still managed to beat them to class.

To top it all off, Orihime told him that Tatsuki had never moved from her spot in class!

It was mind boggling!

Finally, Ichigo cornered his friend and asked how the hell she pulled it off.

Her smirk was not very comforting at all.

"I am not telling. If I did, then you still wouldn't understand. A girl has to keep some secrets after all..." she cackled.

Ichigo finally let the matter drop, hoping one of her sides would tell him.

If only to get his attendance back to normal.

* * *

Ichigo had won the coin toss as to who would patrol that night, so Adhara was dealing with the hollows for him. She at least, understood his need for a break every once in a while, if only until he got used to the night schedule.

As he lay on his bed, relaxing for the first time in a week, he thought back to what he knew about Tatsuki.

She was the strongest girl in the class, yet she didn't lord it over everyone. She went to cram school almost every night, and still managed to end up in the top ten of the class. She was best friends with Orihime Inoue, though she almost never tried the girl's odd concoctions. And, here he paused because he was one of the extremely rare people she had trusted with this information...

Tatsuki was adopted.

According to her parents, they had found her while on vacation in Surrey and had adopted her while leaving a big enough paper trail that any detective could follow.

No one had ever come looking for her, a fact that both annoyed and saddened her. Not that she would ever admit to that fact. Ichigo and Orihime were the only ones who knew.

And now he found out she was a soul reaper. And that she had been living a double life for eight years.

He really wondered what else she could possibly be hiding from everyone.

* * *

Ichigo and Rukia were wondering who could be taking care of the hollows during their turn. Adhara had welcomed the help, and often took her days off to report back to the soul society. As far as they knew, Rukia had gotten her hands on a bad gigai and was trying to recover from it.

Adhara, when they asked, had an idea who was behind it.

"You're saying someone is taking out the hollows before you?"

"We thought it was you," said Rukia.

"Not me. I've been in the soul society for the past three days. But there is one other person who knows about hollows and might have the power to take them out in Karakura."

"Don Konoji?"

"Hell no. He's not even in this district. I'm talking about Uryu Ishida."

Seeing Ichigo blank out about the name, Adhara sighed.

"Same class as Tatsuki, and one of the few people who wear glasses. He sits by the window and has extremely good spirit control."

Ichigo still didn't know who she meant.

"You probably haven't noticed him because your power blocks out everyone else."

"Huh?"

"Alright, just to prove my point, how many other students in our class have the ability to see ghosts?" she asked.

"You?"

Adhara smacked him on the head.

"There are five if you include me, dumbass. Name them."

"All I know is you can see ghosts."

"Unbelievable..." growled Adhara.

She held up a hand.

"Orihime Inoue, Yasutora Sado, Keigo Asano, Uryu Ishida and myself."

Ichigo gaped. Almost every one of those people were in his rather limited group of friends.

"Orihime has been able to see ghosts more clearly since she was exposed to your rather large amount of spirit energy when you saved her from her brother. Keigo can at the very least see soul reapers, which surprised me because he actually waved at me once when I was wearing glasses. Chad has been growing in power for weeks since that parakeet was taken care of. Uryu has a rather excellent spiritual control, which is the only reason I noticed him at all."

"Who is Uryu?" asked Ichigo.

"I'll point him out tomorrow, since you can't seem to remember faces that well," she sighed.

* * *

Tatsuki waited for Ichigo to show up. Uryu was already in class, sitting by the window.

"Look, you see the guy in our class by the window with glasses?"

"The one with the short hair?"

"That's the one. He's Uryu."

Of course she had to keep Ichigo from revealing he knew about the hollows so soon.

"Chances are he'll challenge you to a fight. Do me a favor and don't accept."

"Why?"

"Your level of spiritual pressure is the reason _why_ there are so many hollows in Karakura. If you accepted his challenge, chances are rather high that a Menos Grande would appear, which means I would have to fill out twice the amount of paperwork when I get rid of the damn thing."

"Menos Grande?"

"A large hollow made of at least a hundred other hollows. They're about the size of Tokyo Tower, and can use a power called Cero, which causes massive damage," Tatsuki explained patiently.

Rukia should have told Ichigo about Menos, if only because he had absolutely no control over his large amount of spiritual powers.

* * *

Uryu cornered Ichigo later that week. And like Tatsuki had warned Ichigo, the fool challenged him. Uryu did his best to bait him, but he wasn't having it.

Frustrated by his lack of success, Uryu finally lost what common sense he had and used the hollow bait to force Ichigo into the challenge.

Adhara paused, and looked at her soul pager. It was going absolutely nuts!

"That fool!"

* * *

Tatsuki glared at the hollow, wondering how it had managed to get this close to the school without her soul reaper half destroying it. She had her soul pager, but after agreeing with Ichigo that he would deal with the hollows today she had put it on mute.

She opened up the phone...and swore. Uryu must have crushed the hollow bait. That was the only explanation for the surge in hollows.

She was going to punch his lights out next time she saw him.

She heard Orihime from outside, and ran. The hollow apparently had the power to control people with the strange pods. She used her spirit energy lightly. Only enough to destroy the pods on the humans.

At least, until she was caught off guard by Chizuru grabbing her arm.

The hollow took it's chance to hit her with the pods. With most of her powers sealed off, she could barely keep control of her own body.

She bit and bit hard when the thing got close enough. The resulting slam into the building caused her to temporarily black out.

When she woke up, she found Orihime was gone and everyone was unconscious. The only explanation for that was that Orihime's power had finally woken up.

She slowly got up, and realized all her injuries were gone.

"Right. Time to pound Uryu into the pavement."

She took off for the center of town. Most of the hollows appeared to be centered there.

* * *

Ichigo stared in shock. Tatsuki was leveling hollows left and right while he and Uryu caught their breath. Her sudden appearance had shocked Uryu...particularly when she hit him with a nasty right hook.

It was pretty obvious the boy would be sporting a black eye for the next week.

Uryu was apparently surprised that she could not only see the hollows, but that she could use her fists to destroy them with disturbing ease.

When a sudden opening appeared, Ichigo saw the store owner who tried to take Kon away.

"Hat-n-Clogs?" he said in disbelief.

"You two better get going. These small fry are the least of your problems," he said behind that infuriating fan of his.

The two ran off to where the crack was.

Urahara looked at Tatsuki with interest.

"How did you get her so fast from that school? You were out cold."

"Save the speech for later, Urahara Kisuke," she snapped.

His eyebrows shot up at that.

"You know who I am?"

"I think a few things will become obvious when that Menos shows up," she retorted.

* * *

Ichigo was about to charge at the Menos a second time (he was going to attack it like it was a daruma of sorts) when the thing suddenly staggered back.

Adhara had arrived, and she was ticked. Uryu and Ichigo stared for a minute as she proceeded to beat the hell out of the large hollow with nothing but her fists. When it knocked her back onto the ground Uryu was the first to find his voice.

"Tatsuki?"

"The name's Adhara, jerk. And thanks to you and that stupid hollow bait I'm going to have to do double paperwork for three weeks at least!" she snapped.

When Tatsuki showed up, out of breath, both boys did a double take.

"What the...how are there _two _of you?" asked Ichigo.

"Not now, you moron! Because of your crappy control we have to deal with a damn Menos! You had better help, or I am going to complain to your captain!" yelled Adhara.

Ichigo shot her a confused look.

He didn't know that she had spotted a hell butterfly near them, recording the entire thing. Fortunately, the most obvious sign that Tatsuki was in fact Adhara (namely her necklaces) were currently in her school bag. Tatsuki never wore them when she was training, and she had forgotten to put them on after.

Adhara dealt with the Menos, keeping it distracted while Ichigo started attacking it head on.

It had had enough, and started to use the Cero on the entire area.

Ichigo didn't know how or why he did it. One minute he was standing there, the next he was blocking the blast with his sword. It was making an odd sound... like he was resonating with the hollow.

He redirected the blast at the Menos, sending it packing.

Adhara watched as Ichigo's sword started to twist out of shape, and Tatsuki pushed Uryu at the other boy.

"You, Quincy! Since you're the cause of this mess, you had better help out!" said Adhara.

Tatsuki loomed behind him, radiating violence.

"If you don't, you'll have to deal with me," she growled.

Uyru gulped, and managed to get Ichigo's power back under control. Though his arms looked like hell.


	3. Chapter 3

Tatsuki had no idea Orihime had seen Adhara. Or that she had connected the dots so quickly.

She certainly didn't expect her best friend to approach her with a talking cat... Who she had already met by accident as Adhara.

"This is about Rukia isn't it?" she asked.

Orihime seemed surprised Tatsuki knew.

"You...remember her?" she asked.

Yoruichi jumped down from Orihime's arms.

"I thought you looked familiar. How did you pull it off?" she asked.

Tatsuki pulled out her time turner. Yoruichi had learned from the Karakura magical academy how to transform into an animal, and in exchange she had taught some kido to the students. She was an on again, off again teacher.

It was because of her that Tatsuki had developed Adhara and become a soul reaper.

"A time turner? How many spins do you use?"

"One. It goes by week, not hour."

Orihime and Chad looked confused.

"Well that explains a lot. Care to help me train them?"

"I'll help later, but I can't go into the Seireitei as Tatsuki. It would cause more problems than I want to deal with."

"Agreed."

* * *

Adhara was in trouble. While they had bought her faulty gigai story, they wanted to know why she hadn't reported about the substitute soul reaper.

Fortunately, after years of covering up her double life, she was an accomplished liar. She betrayed none of the more obvious signs that she was giving them a rather large lie.

"I had no idea Rukia Kuchiki had illegally transferred her powers. I had assumed she had somehow managed to break out of her gigai occasionally to kill hollows."

"Who was that other girl?" demanded Kurotsuchi.

He was itching to experiment on her. While Adhara was off limits due to being under Kenpachi's protection, this human girl was not. She had displayed several of the same powers as Adhara.

"How the hell should I know? That kid with the orange hair let off so much power that she probably gained her own from being exposed to him!" she snapped.

Since the boy in question had redirected a Cero blast from point blank range and dealt the Menos a serious blow, they were inclined to believe it. Though they found it highly odd the girl had developed similar powers to Adhara in the first place.

She was let off lightly, since she had only done her job.

Unfortunately that didn't include dealing with her captain.

* * *

"You seem to be pretty well informed on that kid. Is he worth challenging?" asked Zaraki.

Adhara grinned. Ichigo could use a good fight to test his limits.

"Once he learns Shikai, he should be worth your time. Unfortunately I don't know if he's found a real will to fight. He's got plenty of power though. Most of the hollows that go to Karakura are attracted to him because he can't control his large amount of reitsu."

With each word, Zaraki's grin grew more unhinged. It wasn't a big secret that he craved a real fight. He went to great lengths just to find an interesting opponent.

Ikkaku happened to be with them.

"I thought Byakuya took out the kid's shinigami powers?"

Adhara laughed.

"Please, that kid has so much power I doubt that will stop him for long. I think Kuchiki only took out the ones he borrowed from Rukia."

Zaraki looked pleased. He only had to wait and the kid would have his own powers!

"You know this guy so well, why don't you tell us about him?" asked Yumechika.

"He's an idiot for starters. Tried to take on a Menos like it was a daruma."

She let that sink in before Ikkaku and Yumechika laughed, incredulous.

"He would fit in great with us. He's got tons of power but no real control, so I doubt his sword will be a kido type. Plus he is already used to fighting, so he won't be a complete wimp."

Adhara told them what she knew, not letting on that she was actually closer to the boy than they realized.

* * *

Adhara was confined to her quarters for the next month. She didn't worry about it, because what the other captains didn't know was that she could escape at any time. Her shikai could guarantee that.

Besides, once Rukia was saved by Ichigo, they would forget all about her little stunt.

Or they would forget she had been in trouble once they finally decided to show up in the Seireitei. She couldn't wait for Ichigo to show up.

Which he did, nearly two weeks later. One week to regain his powers, and another week to break into the Seireitei and cause a stir.

Once he was in, she got a butterfly from the head captain saying she was allowed out of the barracks again.

The reason being that she was one of the rare people who actually _knew_ what the ryoka looked like.

* * *

Adhara mostly kept away from the ryoka on purpose. Unlike Ichigo, she could sense where they were at all times.

At least, that had been the plan. She sensed Orihime was nearby a large group of soul reapers, and assuming the worst, had rushed to the scene.

Only to find her friend and Uryu disguised as soul reapers.

Seeing one of the SWA's more annoying offenders about to grope Orhime, she reacted as she usually did.

By kicking the guy's face.

"What have I told you about asking unranked female shinigami out on dates?" she snarled.

Adhara was one of the Shinigami Women Association's best at finding and dealing with people who mistreated the girls. She was only topped by Nanao, the lieutenant of Squad eight.

The man paled upon seeing her, and didn't argue when she lead the two away.

"Um...Adhara?" asked Orihime uncertain.

"Relax. I'm not turning you in to Rangiku for self defense classes. Though you should really stick up for yourself more."

Only Uryu figured out that Adhara was playing along with their disguises.

"Which squad are you two with?"

Seeing their blank expressions, she looked at the insignia on the inside of the uniform.

"Squad twelve huh? Must suck having to work for that creepy captain. Why don't you two hang out with me in Squad eleven? It's not like the place isn't most deserted by now."

"Why?" asked Uryu.

"Most of the idiots were taken out by the ryoka. I feel sorry for Unohana though..."

Adhara didn't realize there was a problem until the some Shinigami from squad twelve showed up. They were willing to play along, but she knew something was wrong when they tried to lead them to the barracks.

Orihime, seeing her expression change so quickly, reacted. Her shield went up in an instant, blocked the blasts.

"Not bad. Hey Quincy, think you can take out that creepy clown bastard?" asked Adhara.

"I'll do my best," growled Uryu. He didn't need to have her remove Orihime. He knew Adhara would never let the girl be taken by the madman.

Adhara grabbed Orihime, and ran like hell.

Once they were far enough away, Orihime tried to get her to let go.

"Tatsuki, let me go!"

"I told you, my name is Adhara when I wear glasses! Anyway, we can't stay too close to that bastard, he has the power to poison the very air we breathe!"

"But what about Uryu?" she asked.

"He has a serious grudge against soul reapers. Knowing him, he'll probably manage to survive."

She finally stopped, and grinned when she saw Yachiru.

"How's the captain?" she asked.

Yachiru grinned.

"Ken-chan's fine, and ready to fight again. Everyone's waiting for you to come back to the barracks with news!" she chirped.

"Oh goody. Might as well face the music!" said Adhara, grinning.

Orihime reluctantly went with them to Squad Eleven. The only thing that even convinced her to go was the fact that her best friend would never take her someplace dangerous.

* * *

Some of the remaining idiots in Squad Eleven took a look at Orihime and leered. Adhara kept going and without pausing once she told them coldly "This girl is under _my_ protection. Anyone who even thinks of touching her will have to babysit the lieutenant on a major sugar high with no treatment from squad four."

They stopped looking at Orihime and went back to what they were doing. None of them wanted to babysit the lieutenant on a sugar high.

"So let me get this straight. You've manage to find a way to live in the human world and here at the same time and keep it a secret?" asked Yumechika.

"Remember how the video showed that second girl who looked almost identical to me?" she reminded them.

Ikkaku, Yumechika and her captain had been called it to confirm it. Apparently the people watching the video had trouble believing the fact that there was a second Adhara on the screen.

"You mean that was actually you?" said Yumechika in disbelief.

"Amazing what one can do when you _literally_ have all the time in the world," smirked Adhara.

Seeing their clueless expressions, her smirk widened.

"There is a reason I have never once used my sword to fight."

"Tatsuki...what's going to happen?" asked Orihime.

"We wait...until that rat traitor reveals his cards. I think it's time for me to reveal to the soul society what my real power is..." smirked Adhara.

Now the other reapers were interested. Adhara had only used her shikai ability once, and all the witnesses had died horrible deaths before anyone could stop her.

Once they found out why, she hadn't been punished, only reprimanded by Unohana.

"What traitor...?" asked Yumechika.

"Aizen. He is going to do something to Rukia, and I plan to ruin his day."

"Didn't he die?" asked Ikkaku.

"He's a hypnotist isn't he? How do you know if what you saw was real?" countered Adhara.

She looked at the time.

"We better get ready. We're all going to be in for a lot of fun tomorrow," grinned Adhara.

Zaraki's insane grin grew.

Adhara directed Zaraki to where the others were, and enjoyed the ride. He still had his insane grin on his face.

"Still alive Uryu, Chad?"

Chad took one look at Adhara and said "I thought you weren't joining us?"

"I couldn't join you as Tatsuki, since I was already here."

"Excuse me, but how the hell were you here when you saw us off to the soul society?" asked Uryu annoyed.

Adhara smirked evilly.

"This...is a time turner. It allows anyone who knows how to use magic or kido to reverse time. How far back depends on the amount of magic you put into it. Mine allows me to go back for weeks at a time."

Adhara was holding a simple necklace with a strange hourglass item on it. It was suspended by a thin piece of metal that went around the middle. The way it bobbed back and forth suggested it could be flipped repeatedly, if it wasn't held in place by another thin wire in the top.

"Even Ichigo has no idea how I am able to attend class while dealing with hollows. So you better not tell him about this little item," she smirked.

Everyone in the room (except Zaraki and Yachiru who could care less about her secret) had a chill go down their spine.

* * *

It didn't take long before everyone was heading to the Execution hill. Ichigo and Byakuya were still going at it, while Renji was taking Rukia as far away as possible.

Once Adhara lead them to the hill, she waited until Ichigo was finished before they went past the tree line.

"You really are something, Ichigo."

"Adhara?"

She looked around, and her grin dropped.

"And now...the real culprit should be making his appearance very soon. Orihime, can you heal Ichigo? He's going to need the extra strength."

She pulled out one of Squad four's special energy pills.

"Hey, where did you get that?"

"Unohana gave it to me for keeping my squad in line."

He took one without complaining, aside from the face he made at the taste.

Orihime reluctantly left once Adhara looked at the time.

"Rest for a few minutes, because Rukia and Renji will be coming back in about ten minutes."

"How do you know that?"

Adhara had a strange smirk as she said "Because I've done this already."

* * *

Aizen gave Adhara and Ichigo a cold smile. Adhara was one of the few people who had never been exposed to his sword. So it would be quite difficult to trick her.

Rukia was hiding behind Adhara, who was the only person not worn out.

Without warning, Adhara ducked.

Gin had tried to hit her with his sword.

"Oh drat, I missed," he said calmly.

"You're annoying, Gin Ichimaru, but at least you don't creep me out," smirked Adhara.

Ichigo charged at Aizen.

"Don't bother Ichigo. That bastard can manipulate your senses."

Aizen's smile didn't waver as he beat Ichigo down. He used Shun Po to grab Rukia.

She had to time her shikai just right to do some massive damage to their powers. Like say, steal their swords at a point where they can't do a thing about it?

Funny thing about time. Certain events tended to shape the way it went. Altering them had such devastating effects on the future. Which was why certain things could not be changed.

She knew better than to try.

One such event was Aizen stealing the hogyoku and creating an Espada army to challenge the soul society.

While she was unable to steal the hogyoku from his hands (she had tried the first time, and decided to use a different tactic) she could steal their zanpakuto.

One of the fringe benefits from having a sword that can manipulate time was that she could see a little into the future. Mostly as far as a few months, but it was better than nothing.

In every future she had seen, Aizen had created his Espada army and attempted to destroy Karakura. In a few of them, he succeeded. Some it was a stalemate. But the strongest vision she had gotten involved Ichigo in some way.

One, he defeats Aizen and Orihime destroys the wretched thing. Two, he loses to Aizen, but one of his own turns traitor and Orihime still destroys it.

And three, Ichigo wins, but he turns into the strongest Vasto Lorde in history.

Adhara was going to make very, very sure that one didn't happen. Even if it killed her.

Right as the Menos shot down the light, she activated her shikai.

"_Grant me your power, Time Stranger Kyoko!"_

Her sword flashed a bright light...and everything stopped. A few people were looking at her in surprise, others were shielding their eyes from the light.

She had stopped time a few scant seconds before Aizen and the others were completely encased by the light Menos used to protect one of their own. Inside was a pocket dimension, untouchable by outside means.

She quickly removed the sword from Aizen, Tousen and Gin, and retreated a safe distance away. By the time they realized she had taken their swords, it would be too late for them to react properly.

"_Release the captured time, Kyoko."_

Time restarted, and they were completely encased by the gold light. Aizen blinked, and realized he no longer had his sword.

Yoruichi was nearest to Adhara, and she said "What was that about?"

"Oh, just causing chaos," smirked Adhara.

Everyone looked at her in surprise as she held out three very distinct swords.

"How did you...?" asked Soi Fon.

"How did I nick their swords before anyone saw me? Trade secret!" she grinned.

Aizen revealed his true nature, though he was curious as to how she had taken his sword in what seemed to be a split second. Even Yoruichi couldn't have removed all three of their swords in the time it took the light to hit them.

* * *

The three zanpakuto were placed under heavy security, since the three captains turned traitor. Everyone wanted to know how she did it, but Adhara knew very well what would happen if she revealed her sword's real power.

Three very unhappy futures awaited her if she spoke of it.

In one, they attempted to remove her powers and she was forced to hide in the world of the living as Tatsuki for the rest of her life.

Two, the allowed her to remain part of the Gotei 13 until she was force-ably drafted into the Royal Guard, where she lost her life as Tatsuki.

And three, she remained in the Seireitei until she was drafted in the Kido corps, where everyone despised or feared her because of her large reserves and godlike power.

So yeah, she wasn't talking.


	4. Chapter 4

Everything seemed to be settling down. The head captain accepted the fact that she had somehow managed to maintain a life of both a human and soul reaper thanks to a rare artifact (which she refused point blank to hand over, for good reasons) and had helped the war that was to come by stealing the swords of the three traitors.

Despite many attempts by several captains in finding out _how_ she stole the swords, she kept to her main fallback of explaining it was a special Kido-type. Everyone knew that Squad Eleven looked down on Kido type swords, which was why no one ever questioned her lack of sword before.

Since she didn't want to transfer out (thereby losing her usual method of avoiding the issue of her sword's power) they eventually gave up.

Tatsuki endured the looks Uryu shot her with patience. She knew he hated almost all soul reapers.

But she was one of the few soul reapers who went out of their way to protect the living whenever a hollow was nearby. Somehow she had managed to gain his respect.

Besides, even if he wanted to try anything against her, she would kick his ass.

Things seemed to be calming down, aside from training Orihime to use her fairies to attack. Her main problem was that she lacked a will to hurt others.

At least...it was calm for two weeks.

* * *

Adhara paused when she felt 'it' again. Something was coming. Something to cause her a major headache.

She ducked suddenly when she felt something hot against her neck. She twirled around and saw a large blazing ball of flames. There appeared to be a large bird inside the flames.

She prepared to attack, even though it didn't feel like a hollow at all.

Then it flew right at her.

Something that felt like claws latched onto her wrist, and she could feel it try to pull her away. She tried to yank her arm away from the bird, but it was no use.

She was flying inside the flames, and she wasn't happy. She took a closer look at the bird. And swore.

It was a phoenix!

"If you think for one minute I am going to let you abduct me, you have another thing coming!" she yelled.

She could sense the portal that the bird was going to use. She wasn't going to leave Japan without a fight.

"_Grant me your power, Time Stranger Kyoko!"_

She activated her shikai, and it interfered with the power the phoenix was attempting to use. It released her with a cry of pain, and she started to fall.

_And this is when I thank the gods I became a soul reaper!_

She used her mastery over the spirit particles in the air to break her fall, using short stops to lower the speed she was going. She could tell from a look that she wasn't in Japan anymore. Evergreens didn't grow in Japan.

Wherever she was falling had a castle. And a large lake. She used a kido spell to alter her trajectory so she would have a better landing spot. She didn't want to fall on some poor idiot's head.

With a massive splash, she crashed hard into the lake. She lost the breath she had tried to hold from the impact and began to swim to the surface as hard as she could.

In her pain ridden mind, she barely registered a large tentacle grabbing her and bringing her up to the surface.

She took deep breaths of air, coughing up water as the creature that had grabbed her kept her afloat.

It took her a few seconds to register that it was a squid, though it was easily a thousand times larger than the ones she was used to seeing on festival days.

She heard voices shouting, and glared at them all.

Then she realized she was still in her soul reaper form...and that they could see her quite clearly.

She blacked out as soon as she reached the shore.

* * *

The first thing she saw when she woke up was white. And the smell alone told her she was in a hospital of some sort.

She sat up, took a good look around and finally located her glasses. The second she realized where she was, she cursed.

She wasn't in Japan, let alone anywhere she recognized.

The nurse walked in, and tutted over her condition. She knew why the woman was able to even see her, the air radiated magic in waves.

She felt something thump against her chest, and was relieved to find out that while the necklace Yumechika had given her was taken off with her glasses, the time turner was still on her.

The door opened, and out walked a man with zero taste in acceptable color combinations. Adhara wondered if his sense of taste was in any way similar to Orihime.

"Ah, so you are awake! I must say, your entrance into the lake has caused quite a stir," he said cheerfully.

She took one look at his fake paternal grandfather aura, and distrusted him. This was only deepened when she saw the bird on his shoulder.

"I didn't ask to come here," she said in accented English.

Adhara was one of the few people who could speak English well enough that any tourist could understand her, but she kept the accent to annoy people.

"How, may I ask, did you arrive here?" he asked.

"Ask that flaming chicken on your shoulder," she growled.

The bird chirped in confusion. Which was odd, because she was very sure it was the same bird that had grabbed her.

Something didn't seem right. So she asked a basic question to determine how long she had been out.

"What day is it?"

His false smile didn't waiver as he told her it was September 8th. While that alone was annoying (it had been close to September when she was grabbed) the year surprised her.

She was thirty years in the past. Her shikai must have interfered more than she had thought, because this was the farthest she had ever gone into the past.

Since she didn't have the ability to go into the future (her shikai control was spotty enough when she went into the past, hence why she still used the time turner) she was stuck.

The only good thing was that she wouldn't age that much because of what she was. Shinigami in general took several decades to age even a year physically, and that was if they wanted to age.

(Yachiru for example was well over three hundred years old, yet she still looked like a six or seven year old child.)

The only issue was what she was going to do for the next thirty years.

"Where am I anyway?"

"Hogwarts School of..."

"Witchcraft and Wizardry. How the hell did I end up in Scotland?" she asked.

His eyes twinkled a bit. So she was magically inclined as he had hoped.

"I have no idea, but if you wish, you may stay here until you find a way home," he suggested.

She gave him a look. Clearly he wanted her to stay so he could use her in some way. Too bad she was used to dealing with manipulative people who could care less about her safety.

"I suppose I could kill time for a while. But then I would have to go," she said calmly. She watched his reaction, and wasn't surprised that the twinkling in his eyes doubled.

Inwardly she smirked. If he was going to use her for something he was going to have a serious uphill battle. She was used to dealing with Kurotsuchi's tricks.

This guy would be cakewalk compared to that!

"Excellent!" he exclaimed, and brought out a ragged old hat.

As Tatsuki, she had taken an interest in the other magical schools around the world. One of the books mentioned how they sorted people in Hogwarts through the use of a hat that belonged to one of it's founders.

The hat woke up, and looked through her double sets of memories. He seemed very surprised she was from thirty years in the future. Normally she would have been worried about the artifact talking, but the book she had read had noted the large and intricate secrecy wards around the memories the hat saw that prevented it from speaking about it to anyone. Especially the headmaster/headmistress.

_Plenty of courage I see, not a bad mind either. And more than enough cunning to place you in Slytherin. You would easily fit in any house here!_

_Where are you going to put me already? I need to get this over with so I can figure out how to ruin his plans._

The hat chuckled. Adhara was nothing if not blunt. Years of living in Squad Eleven had insured that much. The fact she saw through the headmaster without having to deal with one of his schemes only amused him.

_With that kind of attitude, I can't see you doing any better than in the house of your parents. Better be..._

"Gryffindor!"

The old man looked very pleased about something. She, on the other hand, was annoyed. The hat knew her birth parents and expected her to just forget that slip up? He was so going to pay.

"We'll head to Diagon tomorrow for your supplies!" he told her cheerfully.

"You may as well forget about the wand," she told him smugly. With a whip of her hand, the wand holder she had charmed to remain invisible opened, and it slid out of the holster.

Just because she didn't like using it didn't mean she didn't own one. She mostly had it for intricate rune work.

Some of the twinkling died down, but only she noticed it. So he thought she was dumb enough to get a wand in a country that was full of paranoid idiots that put tracers on underage children?

Japan had it's own secrecy laws, but at least they allowed for the students to work at home. And it had a better tolerance policy for mundane and creature inheritances.

* * *

She was taken to Diagon by Professor McGonagall. Clearly the old man had noticed her distaste for him. It didn't hurt that she had let slip she had absolutely nothing aside from what she had on her, which meant clothes shopping.

McGonagall, when she heard that, had offered to take her shopping for supplies.

They stepped into Gringotts, and she took control of the situation by asking for a blood test. Seeing the surprised look, she explained to the woman about the fact that she had no idea who her birth parents were, aside from the fact that she had been adopted in England before she was two.

The goblins took her aside, and were very shocked to find out that she was from a noble line that was still around. They gave her a key to the spare vault, and she got the gold she needed to buy her supplies.

Which lead to a major shopping spree. Especially in the apothecary. Several ingredients were rather hard to get in Japan.

"So what year am I going to be in?" she asked the woman.

"Fourth."

She tried not to laugh. She was almost sixteen, and they thought she was fourteen? She didn't feel like correcting that mistake.

It would make things much more interesting.

McGonagall stared faintly at the large amount of books the girl had picked up. When she asked why she had gotten more than required, she got an amused "Where I come from, most of these are rarely seen outside a bibliophile's library and it's worth more than I make to even buy them."

Which lead to an explanation of what a bibliophile _was_. The store owner could care less about the amount of books, all he could see was the large amount of gold the girl was going to pay him.

She gave him the required amount, and he put them all in an expandable bag.

"What's next ma'am?"

"A pet, if you like," she said faintly.

They had time to kill before Madam Malkin finished giving the girl a complete school wardrobe, along with some unmentionables.

She had been horrified to learn that Adhara had only gone with a simple breast band across her chest instead of a proper one. The fact that she lived with tons of men who had long since learned she was off limits didn't help at all.

Adhara looked at the pets in boredom. Most of them avoided her like the plague because of what she was. Cats she could tolerate, dogs didn't seem to agree with her, and she abhorred rats with a passion.

It wasn't until she passed the snakes that she even found something worth her time.

Adhara knew she was a parselmouth. She had taken several classes on creature magic because of it. She had also spent a full month learning to control it so she would accidentally slip into snake tongue whenever one was near.

Those in the West viewed it as a Dark gift, and that was one headache she didn't want to deal with.

Inside the cage was something that appeared to be a snake. Because of the Dark Lord, most people viewed snakes as evil pets, so there were very few in the store.

But she knew it wasn't a snake at all. Even if the Western wizards didn't recognize it, she did. The markings on it were too distinct for it to be a regular snake.

She gently lifted it out of the cage, and it almost hissed at her in annoyance.

It took one look at her, and settled down.

McGonagall almost looked horrified at the pet she had bought.

"Relax. This isn't even a real snake."

She didn't look very assured about that. Suddenly they heard screaming. Death Eaters were attacking the alley again.

One of the men saw Adhara and the snake (which had curled around her neck like a scarf) and leveled his wand at her. She looked at him in boredom.

"_Bakudo number 1: Sai!" _Adhara slashed at the air in front of her horizontally, and the man was bound by her kido spell. She looked at the other men, who were now paying attention to her, and smirked evilly.

She had some aggression to work out, and they were the perfect candidates for some pain.

Soon it wasn't the patrons that were screaming in pain. The Death Eaters quickly realized they were on the wrong side of an annoyed witch, and ran.

She looked at a shocked McGonagall, and said proudly "There's a reason they call me Dragon Fist Adhara."

The poor woman fainted from shock.

Adhara finished her shopping, and managed to wake up McGonagall so they could floo back to the school.

Her new 'snake' (which she named Kyoko as a joke, since it was female) was now pretending to be a belt. She seriously didn't think Dumbledore would notice the serpent around her waist.

And she was right.

"It seems you two had an exciting day," he said with a smile.

"If you count beating up weak ass wizards exciting," said Adhara bored.

The weakest member of squad eleven could have put up more of a fight, even with their swords. Her estimation of wizards dropped lower.

"Headmaster, perhaps it would be a better idea to have her settled in before dinner," suggested McGonagall tiredly. She would give a report later, after several shots of good scotch.

Dumbledore waved them off, and Adhara followed the woman calmly.

* * *

Once they reached a portrait, she gave the password and introduced Adhara to Lily Evans and Remus Lupin, the prefects in charge of Gryffindor.

She gave them both a two fingered salute, much to the amusement of Lupin.

"Yo."

Once she got her bed, she followed Lily down to the great hall. What Lily didn't see was Adhara putting in a pair of ear plugs that she always had on her.

James Potter wondered why the strange transfer was ignoring him. And what those yellow things in hear ears were. Finally, he asked Lupin, the only one of their group who knew about muggles.

Remus took one look at Adhara and saw what she had in her ears, and started laughing.

"It's no use talking to her James, she has ear plugs in."

"Ear what?"

"Ear plugs. They dim the noise level so you can keep your hearing. She probably didn't want to be deafened by questions on her first day," explained Remus.

"You're right, actually," admitted Adhara.

He checked, and saw she still hadn't taken them out.

"I can read lips," she explained.

And that ended all attempts to talk to her. At least until morning.

* * *

Adhara woke up early, and headed directly for the great hall. She had signed up for a few classes, which she had already taken back home. The only thing she hadn't done before was Care of Magical Creatures.

Mainly because they didn't have that class back home.

She walked right past a ghost, stopped and went back.

"What the... Who exactly are you?" she asked politely.

"Sir Nicholas, at your service Madam!" he said cheerfully.

"Right...and why are you a ghost?"

His attempt to shock her failed so spectacularly that he looked disappointed.

"Botched beheading. That must have been annoying," she commented.

After talking to him for a bit longer (she was surprised to learn that there were no less than ten ghosts at any time in the school, and that he was the patron of Gryffindor) she went to breakfast.

She was about to walk in, when she stopped suddenly. Her danger sense was going off big time.

So she investigated the door, and then the archway. It didn't seem like there was anything wrong with it.

But she knew better than to go in.

She spotted what she assumed was the Bloody Baron and asked politely "Is there another way into the great hall?"

He gave her clear directions, and she entered without any more trouble after thanking him.

She was treated to a highly amusing sight of three boys walking in wearing frilly pink dresses. One of them was the prefect from last night, Remus.

The other two were clearly good friends of his.

"I don't get it! Why didn't the prank go off on old Snivillus?" whined a boy with short black hair that went everywhere.

"I don't know Prongs, he usually gets here before us!" whined the other boy with long black hair and startling blue eyes.

She cleared her throat, trying not to laugh at them all.

"Maybe because the prank was too obvious?" she snickered.

They stared at her. She had beaten them to the table and hadn't been pranked.

"How did you...?"

"I asked the Bloody Baron if there was another entrance, and he was kind enough to give me directions," she laughed.

And that was the start of an interesting year...


	5. Chapter 5

The Marauders had found their match in pranks. Instead of getting the new transfer student with their pranks, she got them instead and bypassed every trap they set for her.

If they hexed a stair, she took another route. If they booby trapped the common room doors, she waited until someone else went through first. If they pranked the great hall, she avoided it and went to the kitchen instead.

The problem was that they had absolutely no idea how she knew when and where they would hit!

So they held an emergency meeting of the minds. (Aka: Sirius, James and Remus would think of something to use on her while Peter did nothing.)

"How does she do it? Every time we try to get her, she avoids it like she knows!" whined Sirius.

Unnoticed by the boys, a single black emperor butterfly lay innocently on top of Remus' bed. Adhara had found the perfect spying tool.

It was a specially modified Hell Butterfly that she had swiped from the barracks. It could transmit images and sounds straight to her soul pager. Which meant the Marauders were going to have trouble pranking her.

She listened in with great amusement as they plotted to prank her food with color changing dust. Remus, who usually sat next to her during lunch, would dump it when Sirius asked her a question about homework.

When she took a bite out of her lunch, her hair and skin would automatically change into the color she hated the most!

Plans made, she closed the phone and snorted in amusement. She was going to get them instead.

It would be easy enough to switch her plate with Remus. Her shikai would make sure of that. And she could get all three of them by adding the dust to their food instead.

She grinned.

Hogwarts was a great place to practice her powers over time without the soul society finding out.

* * *

"ARGH!" cried James, Sirius and Remus as their hair and skin turned into Slytherin colors.

Everyone laughed at them as Adhara smirked evilly.

"If you're trying to hit me with a prank, do it somewhere I won't overhear of your plotting," she told them.

This would be fun. Since the uniform was black, it was highly unlikely they would even _see_ the butterfly on James' clothes.

She walked up to Severus Snape, ignored the glares from the other Slytherins and told him bluntly "The idiots are going to hit you with the Jelly Leg jinx between lunch and dinner."

He stared at her.

"How do you know that?" he asked suspiciously.

She held up her phone.

"I placed a spell on them that allows me to overhear their rather pathetic attempts to plot my doom so I won't have to worry about their pranks."

"Why are you telling me?"

"Because it's more fun to annoy them than to work with them?" she said.

He could acknowledge that. It was pretty fun to see their pranks turned back on them for a change.

The next day, he waited until lunch before he used the shield charm. Sure enough he felt something hit it, then bounce back to the sender.

James Potter fell flat on his face when he went to get up, much to the amusement of the students. He glared at Snape in annoyance.

Adhara gave the boy a thumbs up, much to the horror of the other Gryffindors.

* * *

"How could you betray us to Snape, Adhara?" whined James.

Adhara gave him a level three glare. He yelped, and backed off.

"You and I are not that good of friends, Potter-san. I never gave you permission to call me by my given name," she told him irritably.

Lily looked confused.

"Where I come from, we speak to fellow classmates with respect. We use certain suffixes to convey that respect. Only close friends or relatives are allowed to call others by their first name," she told him with a growl.

"Which country are you from?" asked Remus.

"Nihon."

She knew better than to outright give them the name. If the old man knew where she was from, he would track her down after the school ended and make her days a nightmare.

"So how do I speak to you?" asked James calmly. Her glared was downright scary!

"If you _must_ use my name, you should address me as Adhara-san. That is how you properly speak to people where I come from. If you call me Adhara without any honorifics, you are being extremely rude to the other person," she told him.

"So if I were to talk to Sirius, I would say Sirius-san?" he asked, trying to get his head around it.

She shook her head.

"Those with close relationships may drop the honorifics."

She blinked... how had this turned into a lesson on Japanese honorifics?

She spent the rest of the night explaining the system, and the different honorifics used. Most seemed to grasp the concept easily enough, since she used some rather good examples.

(Namely the Marauders and Lily.)

The next morning, it didn't take long before her impromptu lesson about Japan took effect. Much to her relief, by the end of the week most of the students were actually following the system she was used to at home.

Though the few who simply refused to go along with the new trend quickly learned how painful it was to address Adhara without it.

Fortunately, most of those were Slytherins who nobody liked anyway.

* * *

Adhara did a complex maneuver in the common room, ignoring her audience with ease. The Marauders all tried to ignore her rather impressive display of hand to hand combat. Finally, Lily had enough.

"Adhara-chan, could you please do that somewhere else? You're disturbing the other students."

"If you can find me an abandoned classroom or something, then I will work there."

Lily lead the other girl to a nearby classroom which had been disbanded years ago. It was one floor down from the tower, so Adhara could find it easily.

The only real issue was the dust mite problem, which had both of them sneezing.

Adhara looked at the rat and spider filled room with annoyance. The Marauders happened to be nearby to watch the fallout.

So it was with great shock when she picked up four rats by the tail, and threw one at each of them.

"Do you guys really expect me to be freaked out by rats?"

Seeing their shock, she gave them a look.

"I live with a lot of muscle bound morons who only avoid me because I can kick their ass. What made you think I would be afraid of spiders and rats?" she asked them.

They walked away in defeat.

* * *

Adhara was in her dorm with three other girls. Lily, Molly and Alice were all the victims of the Marauders in some way or another. It was time for payback.

"So how are we going to prank the prank kings?" asked Lily, eager for revenge.

"Simple. Stick to the classics. These boys have never used mundane pranks have they?"

Lily shook her head.

Adhara grinned evilly. She held up a can of shaving cream, a bucket, honey and feathers.

"Girls, it's time to go old school on these creeps!"

They cheered. With supervision from Lily and Adhara, they proceeded to booby trap the boy's dorms.

Much to the surprise of Adhara, while the boys couldn't go into the girl's dorms (much to her delight) the girls could invade the boys.

Which meant they had a safe haven after pranking them.

Adhara sprayed the shaving cream on Sirius and James while Lily set up the honey trap. The four usually went out together, which meant they would get them all at once.

The next morning screams of horror were heard from the Marauders. Muggleborns laughed as they realized someone had used normal pranks on the boys.

"This means war!" declared James, as his face was covered in shaving cream.

Peter and Remus were covering in chicken feathers, while Sirius was busy trying to wash the cream out of his hair.

Adhara laughed at them and shared a high five with Lily.

* * *

James sneered as he lifted Snape up by his ankle. The boy was always at his potions, and his hair was extremely greasy. Plus he was a Slytherin, which meant no one would care if he pranked him.

Well, almost no one.

_Did anyone catch the number of the Knight Bus that hit me...?_

Adhara had hit James with a right hook, giving him a spectacular black eye.

She was right below Snape as she undid the spell, and caught him easily.

"I don't care if you do lighthearted pranks, James Potter, but if I ever catch you trying to humiliate someone like that again, I will kick your arse from here to London!" Adhara snarled. She did not tolerate bullies.

James whimpered from fear. Adhara was in Squad Eleven for a reason besides the fact she could cause massive damage with a punch.

Snape seemed to be in shock as she dragged him to a secluded spot.

"You alright?"

"Fine..." he said quietly.

"Look, if those idiots try anything like that again, tell me. It's one thing to joke around and change a hair color. That's harmless fun. But humiliating people like that isn't funny at all, and I have a zero tolerance rule. I don't care if you're Slytherin, Mundane or Squib."

Snape looked at her with hope in his eyes. She was the only person in the school who had ever bothered to actually _do_ something about the bullying.

"Thank you..." he said, before he ran off.

* * *

Something in the school had changed. At first, it had been a slow trickle, but now it was a flood. Someone had finally stood up to the Marauders and their pranks.

And it happened to be the mysterious transfer who had crashed in the lake.

Adhara was nothing like the school had seen before. She was loud, violent and extremely polite. But most infuriating of all, she showed absolutely no immediate respect to the headmaster aside from what she already gave to the teachers.

And that alone set her apart from everyone. For some reason, every time he tried to perform Legilmency on her, he was blocked. And he couldn't very well slip veritaserum in her food, because she always seemed to know when someone had put something in it. And would start speaking in her native tongue, which he didn't recognize.

It was as if she knew he had his eye on her.

* * *

"Why don't you want to speak to the headmaster?" asked Lily confused.

"Because I happen to see him for what he is. And I could care less about dealing with his grandfather voice. It's grating on my nerves," she told Lily bluntly.

Adhara had developed a reputation for protecting people from the more embarrassing pranks that the Marauders used. She used her sharp wit to cut down scathing remarks made by Sirius and James. Out of the four, only Remus had been spared from her sharp tongue, and that was because he made a point to avoid his friends whenever they were in that mood.

James and Sirius had tried to get to her, and failed abysmally.

It had started with the fact that she was adopted at an early age. One of the more nasty Slytherins had attempted to cut her down because she didn't know who her birth parents were.

He was sent to the hospital wing with two broken arms.

Then another person tried to attack the fact that she didn't even look like a girl.

He was sent to the healer with a black eye.

One of the more rabid fangirls of James attempted to break into her trunk and steal her diary.

Her hair had yet to go back to normal from the electric current she experienced on the metal of the trunk. It wasn't lethal, but it was more than enough to cause a serious frizz problem.

One Ravenclaw tried to mock her accent, and found a bored Adhara giving him a look, and ran away screaming.

After three months of that, people finally gave up in trying to find her weak spot. Particularly when a group of Slytherins attempted to ambush her.

* * *

A Slytherin first year named Greengrass came to Adhara, crying. She told her that a group of upperclassmen had stolen her books and wand. Adhara didn't think twice as she went with the girl.

The girl didn't understand why Adhara abruptly stopped, and went closer to the greenhouse wall. It was one of the older greenhouses, and was so old it was about to fall apart. The herbology teacher had moved most of the expendable plants into it.

Adhara drew a fist which began to glow bright blue and shattered the glass.

The boys charged at her, realizing their cover was blown. Spells shot at her, which she ducked with ease. She grabbed the girl and told her to stay down.

It was a flurry of punches, kicks and some rather impressive swearing on her part as she dealt with the boys. Each of them were from families who supported the current Dark Lord. Some of them already had the mark on their left arms.

By the time she finished with them, they weren't about to go anywhere.

She went up to Greengrass and helped the terrified girl up.

"Are you alright?"

The poor girl was terrified out of her wits. Adhara spoke to her as she would to a terrified unicorn, and the girl calmed down enough to admit the upper years had forced her to lead Adhara into the trap.

She cried with relief that Adhara wasn't going to do anything to her for the deceit.

"Why don't you run and get McGonagall. I promise I won't let anyone hurt you. If they try, come get me, okay?"

She ran as fast as she could. Fifteen minutes later the Transfiguration Mistress came upon an unusual sight.

Instead of the six Slytherins on the ground, there were now ten. Adhara was waiting patiently for the woman.

"Four idiots thought they could best me after I beat their friends. I...convinced them otherwise."

All she needed to see was the Dark Mark on their arms, and she levitated them to the hospital wing. Seven of the boys were arrested, and the other three were recovering in St. Mungo's until they could be questioned.

It didn't take long for rumors to fly about the attack, and the fact that Adhara had taken them down without using her spells.

After that, no one bothered her or tried to bully her again.

* * *

"Let's see...stay for Christmas or go on vacation..." said Adhara.

"How do you usually celebrate Christmas?" asked Lily.

"I don't."

Adhara turned when she heard the stunned silence of the common room.

"I'm Buddhist, not Christian or Catholic. We don't celebrate Christmas except as a holiday for lovers. The most we'll do is head to the shrines who hold a Winter Solstice festival."

Seeing the stares, she looked at the stunned students with amusement.

She left a shocked common room and went in search of a new book to read.

Sirius looked at James with amusement.

"I don't think I've ever heard this common room so quiet," he said with a grin.

James nodded. Even they had never shocked the common room into complete silence.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"We need a new prank to pull something like this off?" suggested Sirius. James nodded, his usual cheer returning.

* * *

Remus stared out the library window. Yet another boring Christmas holiday. He was stuck at Hogwarts, since his parents were heading off to France for the winter and couldn't afford bringing him.

His inner wolf whimpered, and he didn't bother to turn around. Only _one_ person in the castle terrified his werewolf form.

Adhara.

"Bored stiff, Remus?" she asked amused.

He was the only person she allowed to call her by her first name. Well, the only _boy_ anyway. Lily called her Adhara all the time, and she never once corrected her.

"I'm stuck here all winter," he replied.

"I do believe I have given your...cohorts something new to try."

He looked at her. She barely tolerated the Marauders, but she never once attacked them without reason.

"What did you do?"

"Stunned the entire Gryffindor Common into complete silence."

Remus choked.

"How did you pull that off?"

"Truth. I don't celebrate Christmas because we don't _have_ it in our house. It's a holiday for lovers where I come from."

Certain facts clicked into place.

"So you practice the Shinto religion?" he asked.

Her eyes light up in amusement.

"More Buddhist than Shinto, but yes. Finally figured it out have you?"

"You... You're Japanese?"

Adhara clapped him on the back with a genuine grin.

"Finally someone figured the obvious out! I may have been born English but I was raised in Japan."

After that there was a subtle shift in how they talked. Adhara fully admitted to her origin, and Remus carefully alluded to his furry problem...only to find out she knew about it already.

"Like I care that you turn into a furry creature every once in a while. I know someone who is a six foot dog and uses a sword for crying out loud! And my little sister Yachiru is a nekomata pretending to be a human with pink hair," she told him in amusement.

"Nekomata?"

"Two tailed cat demon."


	6. Chapter 6

Adhara was going to have lots of fun this winter solstice. Why?

Because James and his friends were trying like mad to see her actual wand.

She had let it slip to Remus that the wooden stick she used in class was actually a piece of wood she had found outside. Her wand was much, much different.

Finally, the day after the train departed with the other students, she gathered the remaining students in the great hall and grinned evilly.

Their reactions were being recorded through the hell butterflies straight to her magically powered laptop.

She was going to enjoy this.

She held her hands around her heart, and recited the incantation she came up with when she graduated middle school.

"_Magical, Lyrical...Kill them all!"_

What came out was a rather girly looking staff decorated in light robin's egg blue and had a bright green ribbon on it.

Her outfit changed to look like something off of her favorite anime at the time, _Sailor Moon_. She had a particular fondness for Sailor Pluto.

She started laughing when she saw all the other students face-vaulting from disbelief.

"What the bloody hell is that?" exclaimed James out of shock.

"What? You wanted to see my real wand, and this is it."

"What's with those activating words?" asked Sirius.

"I watched a lot of cartoons when I was a kid. One of my favorites was_ Magical Witch Punie-chan._ She would always use her magical powers by saying 'Lyrical Tokarev, Kill them all!'" explained Adhara, thoroughly enjoying their looks of shock.

"And that outfit?" asked Remus weakly.

"I happen to watch _Sailor Moon_ a lot when I was in middle school," she grinned.

Seeing the disbelief in their eyes made the whole thing worth it. It didn't hurt that her outfit actually reflected how much a girl she was. All of her feminine assets were displayed fully, emphasizing the fact that she was a female.

The look on their faces made releasing her wand worth it.

"Why don't you look like this all the time?" asked James.

Adhara laughed, and shivers went down the Marauder's spines.

"Because my magic is so powerful I have trouble controlling it unless I use lots of it. So I seal it away in my wand to keep it a manageable levels. Besides, where's the fun of having a boy chase you because of your looks all the time?" she said in return.

Lily agreed with her completely.

"So how long will this last?"

Adhara thought.

"I can stay like this as long as I want...so until dinner?"

Adhara thoroughly enjoyed the looks of complete shock on the teacher's faces. They couldn't believe it was here until they heard her voice.

Her evil grin never left her face. Several of the males kept giving her speculative looks.

"So how strong are you?" asked Lily.

"Well I am the second strongest girl in Nihon. I only lost that match because of my broken arm..." she said sourly.

Remus choked on his pumpkin juice.

"You were in a martial arts match with a broken arm?"

"The girl was a total butch, but she was a great opponent. I haven't had such a good match in a long time!" said Adhara cheerfully.

Everyone stared at her.

"Then again, everyone here is totally weak. I never have to even use my fake wand to take out an opponent," she complained.

"So what are you going to do for Christmas?" asked Lily, changing the subject.

"Probably go out flying. At least here I can actually fly without having to use the disillusionment spell," she said cheerfully.

James perked up at that.

"You like to fly?"

"Best in my class. Baseball is so much more fun when you're flying hundreds of meters above the ground."

"Baseball?"

Adhara grinned and conjured up a bat and the proper ball.

"Time to have some real fun!"

James was in shock as Adhara's girly wand became a long staff with a heart on top. The entire thing was a light lavender color and had a red jewel inside the heart.

Much to the shock of the boys, she rode the staff like a broom.

"Why use old brooms when I can ride this?" she told them with a smirk.

"I can't believe we got killed out there," whined James.

"Oh, if you think that was brutal, wait until it snows. I claim Remus and Snape!"

Seeing their confused look.

"You and Sirius are going to be creamed when it snows. Which means you should prepare for your doom tomorrow!" cackled Adhara evilly.

* * *

The next morning there was several feet of snow on the ground. It was up to Hagrid's windows.

Adhara snuck into the boy's rooms and dragged Remus out before the others woke up. Snape was waiting for her.

"Are you ready to really cream those idiots?" she smirked.

Snape's evil smile sent shivers down Remus' spine.

"They've had this coming for a long time."

"The potions ready?"

"I left the ones that are prepped on the Astronomy tower. Unless one of them manages to get up there without being caught, they are doomed."

Adhara and Snape snickered evilly.

"What are you two up to?"

"Potion laced snow balls. Sirius, James and Peter are about to be pranked!"

James woke up when the first snow ball hit the window. It took him ten minutes to get the others up and outside.

Only to find out that Adhara was raining death from above. Snape was tossing her snow balls that she caught and threw at the idiots below.

It didn't take long before the Marauders realized what was wrong with the snow.

Sirius' hair turned neon pink, Peter suddenly turned bright orange, and James...well he became a girl.

Their shrieks of horror made the entire thing worth it. Snape had an unholy smirk on his face as he provided Adhara with ammo. Soon Sirius turned into a girl too.

And where was Remus, you ask?

Adhara had given him the most interesting job of all. Blackmail material! He was snapping tons of pictures so they could blackmail James, Sirius and Peter later.

Finally, McGonagall came out after hearing the screams of horror.

Adhara and her team were long gone.

James, Peter and Sirius all got detention for playing with potions outdoors.

* * *

"That wasn't fair!" whined Jenny. (James)

(Snape and Remus were snickering as the two who got hit with the gender changing potions were stuck that way for the next month. As a result, Adhara gave the two new names so no one would realized who they were.)

"Why did you have to use the month long ones?" whined Angel (Sirius.)

Peter had stupidly asked why she gave Sirius the name Angel, but she had explained twice that it would be too confusing for their to be two Adhara's.

Of course they had to take the embarrassment and the ribbing from the other boys when they learned about the prank Adhara unleashed on them.

She waved her finger at them and said "See boys, harmless fun like what I did to you is fine. But pranks that hurt people's feelings cause more trouble than they're worth in the long run."

"But why did you have to turn us into girls!" they whined.

"Consider that payback for the last three years you made my life hell," said Snape tartly. As far as he was concerned, Adhara was his new best friend. (Had given him doubles of the pictures Remus took.)

* * *

Adhara yawned as she left the exam hall. It seemed Hogwarts midterms were easier than the ones she took at home.

Here they only quizzed you on magic instead of everything you learned. It was pathetically easy to finish them.

She was the first one out of the class, much to the annoyance of Lily.

"These exams are sooo lame!" she said aloud.

The Marauders admitted defeat to Adhara after she pranked them every morning for three weeks straight.

Lily saw Adhara laying against one of the many trees, snoring.

"You won't make many friends if you're so violent all the time."

"I make plenty of friends who know I'm only this violent for a reason. It's just that Hogwarts is so full of hypocritical bullies it ticks me off."

"How did you finish so fast?" asked James.

"One, your tests are no where near as hard as the one back home, and two, they put me in the wrong grade to begin with," she smirked.

"EH?"

Adhara had an evil smirk on her face.

"I'll be turning sixteen at the end of July," she told them.

"You're..." said Sirius.

"A whole year..." continued James.

"Older than us?" finished Remus.

"You mean you couldn't figure that much out? Come on, no fourteen year old is _this_ developed, idiots!"

Lily gave the three a look.

"She has a point you know. I had wondered why she was so physically and mentally developed. But the age difference explains a lot."

"Then why aren't you in fifth year?" asked James.

"I never told the old guy my real age, and it didn't seem important to change years. Besides, what does it matter what year I'm in anyway? I already graduated from my magical academy when I was twelve," said Adhara.

"WHAT?"

"Our school has students graduate when they pass a certain exam. With my reserves, I passed it three years ago."

"Does that mean..."

"I can use my magic outside school and your lame ass Ministry can't do anything about it."

Seeing their jaws drop, she smirked even wider.

"Besides, it's highly unlikely any mundanes would even see me in the first place," she told them.

"So what are you going to do for summer vacation?" asked Lily.

"I think I'll tour Europe. I stayed in my home country for so long that the farthest I've ever been was to Hokkaido and Kyoto."

Only Remus knew where she was from. Everyone else still believe the rumors that she was from the sky.

"Are you coming back next year, Adhara?" asked Lily.

"Natch. I got nothing better to do until I can find a way home. That flaming chicken dragged me further than I go normally."

"Flaming...chicken?" asked Sirius.

"That overgrown parakeet in the old guy's office," she explained.

It took three seconds before James and Sirius burst out laughing. Clearly they had never called Fawkes a flaming chicken or overgrown parakeet before.

* * *

The girl was a menace. Not only was it impossible to get rid of her magic, she was also a fully educated witch! And he still didn't know which country she was from!

At least she was coming back, which meant he would have more chances to turn her to his side.

Now...to plan the next raid on Tom.

* * *

Her vacation had started innocently enough. She got to tour London and enjoy the sights of Ireland. The goblins had given her enough mundane cash to have fun.

Then it all went south. She was asleep in her hotel room when she was grabbed. By the time she woke up, it was too late.

When the spell was lifted, she found herself in a room full of murdering Death Eaters. They were all giving her looks that she hadn't seen in a long time.

Looks of unbridled lust and lechery.

Since legilmency didn't work on her, and the imperius was kicked off, they threw her into a cell. They planned on torturing her later for fun.

Inside were several muggleborn students, two half bloods and one terrified mundane.

"Well what do ya know. This summer vacation is going to turn out fun after all!" she smirked.

"What are you talking about! Don't you know where we are?" cried one of the girls.

Adhara smirked even wider.

"I haven't had to deal with this crap for a long time. I almost forgot how much fun it is to beat the living hell out of old perverts like these."

The door opened to reveal Death Eaters. The looks they were giving their captives caused a few to break down into tears.

Adhara stood up, her eyes glinting coolly.

"What do you think you're doing, bitch?" the man sneered.

"_Magical, Lyrical, Kill them all!"_

Her staff glinted like fire in the light. Before the man could react to the sudden transformation, she broke his arm in three places. The girls watched in shock.

"Relax girls, I'm going to rescue all of ya! Just stay put here, and don't leave the room no matter what you hear."

The girls nodded weakly. She placed a strong kido barrier around the room, and reinforced it from the outside. There wasn't any chance of a Death Eater getting in there without her help.

"Now then...time to have some fun!"

* * *

"_My lord, one of the girls escaped and is annihilating our forces!"_

"_Kill her or recapture her, you fools!"_

"_But sir...!"_

"_CRUCIO!"_

Adhara couldn't remember the last time she had so much fun. She had forgotten what it was like to completely go all out on people who wanted nothing more than take advantage of her.

Best of all, she didn't have to worry about Unohana's disapproving look because she beat the living crap out of her victims!

Her staff caused flames to erupt without warning on the robes. Her insane laughter sent chills down the spines of the Death Eaters. It was only made worse when they repeatedly tried to kill her using one of the Unforgivables.

Her insane smile widened to impossible levels as she sneered at them.

"You can't kill someone who is already dead, morons!"

**(Little known fact: Shinigami who are at the seated level are immune to the Imperius and Avada Kedevra curse. Crucio will cause a twinge, at most.)**

Between her massive strength and insane spells, she was decimating the Death Eater hideout.

Then she came face to face with the Dark Lord himself.

"How very interesting..." he sneered.

"Ugh. So not interested," she said quickly.

She recognized that look in his eyes. He wanted to turn her into his Dark Lady, and that was the last thing she had in mind. Besides, he was twice her age at least!

Voldemort went to grab her hand...only to fall back from pain. Her skin felt like liquid lightning!

"Son of a... That hurt asshole!" she snarled, and hit him with a right hook.

Combined with the odd reaction to her skin, Voldemort was thrown clear out of the house. He was in immense pain as his body literally broke the wall.

Adhara shivered from disgust. That was too close for her taste.

"Right...time to kill everyone!"

_Three hours later..._

Dumbledore got a hot tip that one of his students had been captured, and summoned his Order of the Phoenix to perform a raid.

Only to find several girls sitting outside in awe as the transfer student beat the hell out of several known Death Eaters.

"Where do ya think you're going? I'm not through with you yet!" she yelled.

"Who the hell is _that_?" asked Alastor Moody in respect.

"The new transfer...Adhara. What is she doing?" asked Dumbledore.

Adhara finally noticed them.

"It's about time _someone_ showed up! I was starting to get bored here!"

Everyone's jaws dropped in disbelief.


	7. Chapter 7

Adhara was used to how people looked at her in disbelief, shock and awe.

It came with the territory when you were the only person that was trusted to keep the brutish thugs of Squad 11 in line when it came to dealing with the female soul reapers.

It was why she almost never bothered with her magical transformation unless she felt like going all out.

There was a side effect to transforming however. Not that anyone in her squad ever noticed.

She had a massive appetite for food.

(_Interesting side note: _Due to the massive amounts of strength she uses on a daily basis in order to keep her fellow squad members in line, most of her bi-weekly pay went into food bills. Whenever she uses her full magical power, that bills triples. Sadly, this also results in her table manners taking a sharp nose dive.)

"More please!"

Molly Prewitt was staring in amusement at Adhara's rather...healthy appetite. Fortunately she didn't seem to mind the large amounts of food the girl put away.

According to her, she was preparing for when she got married. She planned to have as many kids as she could...at least until she had a daughter.

Finally, Adhara put her plate down for the last time.

"Man, I'm stuffed! That was delicious Molly-chan!"

Molly beamed at her.

"I'm so glad you liked it!"

Andromeda Black looked at Adhara with something akin to shock.

"You do realize that you just put away nearly forty plates of heavy foods...right?"

"Huh? It usually takes fifty when I use up my reserves like that. That means Molly-chan is an extra good cook!"

"Don't you worry about your figure?" asked Andromeda.

"Why bother? With the amount of exercise I do every day, I don't see the need to worry. Besides most of that goes into energy anyway."

"How did you end up in a Death Eater hideout anyway?" asked Andromeda.

"They nabbed me when I was sleeping in my hotel room. Unfortunately for _them_, I'm used to beating up guys ten times stronger than they are on a daily basis. They don't call me Dragon Fist Adhara for nothin'!"

Since the incident with the Death Eaters, Dumbledore kept Adhara under watch. She could care less, since it was very easy for her to escape if she wanted.

It wasn't like these wizards were anywhere near her level of strength. On the plus side of her pseudo house arrest, she got to learn more about her fellow classmates.

Molly was one of the best cooks she had ever met. Andromeda wasn't on speaking terms with her family, and was planning on marrying a mundane. Narcissa was still annoyed about her fiance's many girlfriends. Bellatrix was starting to lose her mind early. Alice had a serious crush on Frank Longbottom.

They had all heard of her of course.

Adhara, the only girl in the school who would stand up the Marauders, and get away with it. She was also something of a hero to the girls of the school, because the news of her beating up and maiming over fifty Death Eaters in one of their hideouts had become headline news.

Somehow, someway, a picture of her in her transformed outfit had made it through the Hogwarts Grapevine.

Only those who attending classes with her even recognized who the girl in the photo was, to her relief.

As soon as she settled in with Molly Prewitt, she found herself facing an avalanche of owls. Most of them either fan mail or wanting to know if that was actually her in the photo.

"I have to admit, I was never this popular back home. At least, not this quickly anyway."

* * *

Adhara found herself facing something she had never experienced before. A girl's night in.

"So what was it like in the hideout?" asked Bella eagerly.

"Boring. The place was full of perverted old geezers... this one guy touched me, and for some reason it felt like I was hit by lighting. Not a fun experience."

"What old guy?"

Adhara described him, and their eyes widened comically.

"YOU WERE FACE TO FACE WITH THE DARK LORD?" they said in complete shock.

"That was the dark idiot? I sent him flying through the wall!" she said in surprise.

"You sent the Dark Lord...flying through the wall. How did you manage to keep your cool in his presence?" asked Narcissa.

"I thought he was one of the idiots who grabbed me. Though with the way he looked at me, he should be grateful I didn't break both his legs," Adhara shivered. That had been horrific.

The girls wanted to know more. Adhara was the most exciting person they had ever met.

"I swear, that old geezer looked at me like a piece of meat or something. He's twice my age for Buddha's sake!"

Bella's eyes widened.

"The Dark Lord wanted to make you his Dark lady?" she said eagerly.

She shivered.

"The guy was totally gross. Besides, I would never consider any man who can't at least match me in a fight," said Adhara firmly.

"You took out fifty Death Eaters and saved thirteen other girls. Face it, you're not going to find anyone in Europe who could match you... Well, not in England anyway," said Andromeda.

"I figured that much. Back home, I can name at least three guys who could possibly keep up with me. Four if I include the people who live in the barracks with me."

Which prompted the girls to ask who they were, what they looked like, everything.

"Well Ichigo is brash, but you can always count to have your back when you need it the most. Chad is the strong, silent type and he never uses his insane strength for himself. Uryu is one of the smartest guys I know, but his common sense is sorely lacking in some areas. Yumichika is fun to mess with, because he's a total narcissist who's obsessed with beauty. He won't even look at ugly things if he can help it."

As she described them, the other girls sighed in disappointment. If only the boys in Europe were like the ones she was describing.

She lightly touched on her issues with her fellow squad members, and how she was so used to beating them up that she forgot most guys can't handle her insane strength.

It wasn't until she mentioned her calligraphy classes that they found common ground.

Much to her amusement, she ended up writing their names in Kanji, using her favorite calligraphy brush. It was one Byakuya had given her for managing to learn from him so quickly.

It wasn't until three in the morning when the girls finally went to sleep.

* * *

Adhara looked at the clock with some amusement. It had been a long time since she had bothered to sleep past sunrise. Most mornings she was up and about, if only to beat the men to the showers.

(Squad eleven doesn't have a room for the girls to shower. So they usually shared with Squad ten, provided Adhara kept the lieutenant on a very short leash and away from anything with sugar. It was a workable arrangement.)

Much to her surprise, Lily had somehow managed to get to the house where Dumbledore had left them. Alice's mother didn't seem to mind Bellatrix and Narcissa, mainly because they kept their usual comments about the war to themselves around Adhara.

(She had gone up to them one morning, and said if they could keep the comments about blood and race to themselves, she would help them study for the finals. They had accepted her offer, considering the price was the rather low cost of being nice.)

"Ohayo, Lily."

Lily yawned. She had arrived early in the morning, and she still wasn't up. Adhara passed her an Inoue special, which the girl drank without question.

Her eyes shot open pretty quick when she tasted the hot sauce, and she glared at Adhara.

She drank the unholy concoction without question...it was one of the few recipes Orihime had created that didn't sound questionable.

"What in the name of Hecate was _that_?" Lily demanded.

"Inoue special. Guaranteed to wake _anything_ up. And I do mean anything."

"Do I even want to know?"

"Not if you want to preserve your concept of what is acceptable as food, then no," said Adhara flatly.

The only reason she had even tried it the first time was because she had used the time turner while suffering a hangover. Ikkaku and Rangiku clearly hadn't understood she was a minor at thirteen.

Then again, she had shocked everyone by managing to hold her own with the two drunkards. She was the only person even conscious when Toshiro had found them.

The yelling after that incident had been particularly horrific thanks to her throbbing head.

After the Inoue special woke her up (and somehow cured her hangover) she got the recipe from Orihime and used it sparingly.

"What's that scent you're wearing?" asked Lily, curious.

"Cherry blossom. I have this friend who loves cherry blossoms, and he found this great place that sells bath and body products with that scent. It was either that or lily of the valley."

Narcissa took one look at Lily, and sniffed. She said nothing, but Lily saw some respect from Narcissa.

Probably because of the way she handled James on a daily basis.

"Morning, Narcissa Black."

"Morning, Lily Evans," replied Narcissa.

Lily had, last year, borrowed a book on proper pure blood customs. And had asked Molly which ones were still followed. After that most of the pure bloods from Slytherin started to quit calling her derogatory names.

Once the girls got use to the mismatched group, they discussed what they were going to do for the day. It was quickly decided after the owls arrived.

"SHOPPING!" declared the girls (except Adhara, who loathed clothes shopping.)

* * *

_No matter what country you were in, you can always count on the girls setting aside all boundaries to go shopping..._ thought Adhara.

Narcissa and Molly were cheerfully debating clothes while Lily and Bellatrix talked about books. Andromeda was more interested in keeping an eye on their coins.

Adhara was just trying to keep Kyoko from biting the idiots who stared at their group.

It took Narcissa a good fifteen minutes to find out that Adhara had brought her pet snake with her, and that it had cleverly disguised itself as a belt.

"You do realize that most people would class you as Dark with that snake?"

"It's not a real snake. It's a dragon."

"Riiight..."

"In my home country, there are many tales of celestial dragons turning into snakes. Sometimes people would help a snake near a pond or a lake, and would receive a mighty gift from a dragon."

"Really?" asked Narcissa. It sounded interesting.

Adhara nodded.

"I can bring you one of my translated books if you want."

"If I ever have a son, I am naming him Draco."

"A proud name. Hope he lives up to it," said Adhara honestly.

Narcissa beamed at her.

"I don't know Lily...that shade of purple would look absolutely horrid on you," said Bella.

"I agree. Gold is definitely more your color," said Narcissa dryly.

"Personally I'm more a fan of blue and bronze," said Lily.

Adhara was trying to avoid becoming a dress up doll. Alas, the Black cousins knew her game a little too well.

She squawked in surprise as Narcissa and Bella gleefully dragged Adhara into the back.

Adhara walked out of the fashionable clothing store with a whole new wardrobe. And she looked like she had literally gone through hell.

"I hate shopping for clothes."

"Me too," said Lily.

Next they hit the bookstore. And walked out with their new course books and several galleons lighter. Bella and Narcissa were debating with Lily over the new _Beauty Tips for the Dark Witch_.

Molly had found a new cookbook that she couldn't wait to try, and Adhara promised to be her guinea pig. Andromeda was busy thinking of how much they had left.

"How about Knockturn?" asked Narcissa.

"Why not. If anyone bothers us they can deal with me!" said Adhara cheerfully.

"But isn't Knockturn a Darke alley?" asked Molly worriedly.

"So? Bella and Narcissa are from a Dark family, yet they're tons of fun to hang out with," Adhara pointed out.

Both girls grinned at her.

And so, despite her many misgivings, they went into Knockturn. As far as the onlookers were concerned, the Black girls had forced them into it.

If they were caught, they fully planned to lay all the blame on Adhara, who didn't have a problem being the scapegoat.

* * *

"We could always go to Yomiko's Dragon Book Emporium," suggested Andromeda.

"Let's go! Narcissa, Bella, Andromeda, you three lead the way and we'll follow," said Adhara cheerfully.

It didn't take long for Adhara to hold back squeals of glee. They had books in her native tongue here, for cheap prices! And when she found an actual copy of _Journey to the West_ and _Saiyuki_ she was grinning from ear to ear.

The girls all shot her concerned looks as she attacked the shelves. By the time they had left, Adhara had spent over half of her money.

"Did you pick up a cursed book by any chance?" asked Narcissa with some concern.

"Are you kidding? Do you have any idea how rare those books are back home? And to find an unedited original copy of _Journey to the West_... That place was a treasure trove!" said Adhara with some glee.

Relieved that she had merely been expressing her love of books, they continued on.

_Two hours later..._

"We don't allow your kind here," said a pure blooded idiot. He was leering at the girls, though he made sure to avoid the Black cousins.

"And what kind is that? Civilized folk who are just here to shop," said Adhara, polishing her nails on her shirt. Her posture was relaxed and ready to action.

The man sneered and when he went to grab Molly, Adhara kicked him so hard that he started singing soprano. His friends shot her nervous looks.

"You have two options boys. Leave here now with your friend...or be left bleeding on the ground and find yourselves mugged by the nice people of the alley," said Adhara sweetly.

One moved to attack her, but the other who clearly had more sense than his friends took him by the arm and helped their crying friend with them.

Adhara noted the speculative looks of respect sent her way. And beamed at everyone.

Today was a great day after all.

* * *

Adhara was very glad she owned ear plugs as Dumbledore lit into the girls for going into a Dark alley.

The other girls weren't so lucky. However, most of them were used to being yelled at by their parents for doing something that wasn't socially acceptable.

Bellatrix, Narcissa, and Andromeda were particularly good at tuning him out after having to listen to their Aunt Walpurga yell at Sirius for not acting like the perfect pure blood son.

Lily was so used to tuning out her sister by now it had become second nature for her to ignore anything that was utterly pointless.

Molly was currently glad that Adhara had a spare pair of ear plugs.

It took Dumbledore fifteen minutes to realize the girls were completely ignoring him! Even when he used his usual method of getting the attention of children, they were still ignoring him.

He finally left annoyed.

"Is he gone?" asked Lily.

Adhara pulled out her ear plugs.

"Took him long enough to realize we could care less about what he says," she said amused.

Lily deftly took out the ear plugs in Molly's ears.

"He should have realized it was pointless when he heard _who_ had gone into the alley."

"He's easily as bad as Aunt Walpurga. Though he doesn't have her set of lungs," said Narcissa cheekily.

Adhara laughed.

"Are the rumors about Sirius putting a permanent silencer on his bed through accidental magic true?" she asked.

Narcissa and Bella nodded. At age seven, Sirius had performed a rather unusual accidental magic by placing a silence charm around his bed.

It had yet to fade away.

* * *

James paced worriedly through the compartment. Rumor had it that Lily had gone unsupervised into a Dark Alley with three of Sirius' cousins.

Adhara took one look inside the compartment, and went to close the door. James caught it quickly.

"Lily are the rumors true?"

"If by that you mean did I really go into Knockturn with Andromeda, Narcissa and Bellatrix Black, then yes. Molly was with us too."

"What the bloody hell were you thinking?"

Lily glared at him.

"I was thinking that I am my _own_ person, not something you can control James Charles Potter. Besides, Adhara was with us the entire time," said Lily frostily.


	8. Chapter 8

Things had definitely taken a turn for the interesting at Hogwarts. When news that Adhara was returning for another year was heard, the boys groaned and the girls cheered.

Adhara was the hero of the school. Especially to the girls.

For centuries the pure blood witches of Hogwarts had been feeling oppressed by the males. A scant few managed to escape their fate of marrying someone who was likely a close cousin and still get along with their families.

Some, like Walpurga Black, dominated their husbands instead. A few actually fell in love with their fiances.

With the arrival of Adhara, the attitude towards the girls by the pure blood males drastically changed.

Adhara was not only a strong woman, but was a powerful, intelligent witch who had no issue speaking her mind. She was also taller than most of the girls in the school. Her green eyes were like liquid emeralds.

The only real downside, in the boy's minds, was her lack of curves.

Though the last boy to comment on that issue got an amused smirk right before he ended up with a black eye for his crass comment.

The rumor about her summer vacation certainly didn't hurt her reputation either.

* * *

Sirius popped his head into the girls compartment. It seems they all had a common bond, despite their differences in school. He was very surprised to see his crazy ass cousin Bellatrix, his snotty cousin Narcissa and his amusing cousin Andromeda all sitting with Molly Prewitt and Lily Evans. Beside them was Adhara, reading a book with bizarre characters.

"Hey. Is it true you took out an entire Death Eater hideout?"

"You mean those pansies with the tacky tattoos? My friends could take them down and still have time to do lunch. They're pathetically weak."

"So you guys really went into Knockturn without help?"

Narcissa made a face.

"Dumbledore could almost give Aunt Walpurga a run for her money," said Narcissa.

Sirius made his own face. He had heard one of the headmaster's rants about safety and all that.

"What did you do?"

"Tuned him out, what did you expect?" said Bella amused.

Sirius laughed, and left the compartment. Adhara paused in her reading, and slowly put her book down.

"Is it me, or did he act like less of an ass than James?"

"It's not you," said Lily dryly.

Narcissa looked at Lily with amusement.

"How did Romeo react to the news you were in a Dark alley?"

"He reacted like he owned me," said Lily angry.

"Which she took the proper route and told him that she was her own woman, thank you very much, and he was not the boss of her," said Adhara proudly.

Molly shook her head.

"Ever since you came the boys are starting to respect us more."

"In my hometown, the boys at least keep their masochist comments to themselves. They also know better than to boss girls around like they own them."

Suddenly Adhara grinned as a thought occurred to her.

"Say...do you girls know any decent drinking songs?"

Molly and Lily groaned as the Black girls cackled. Adhara had something that even the Marauders would love.

Alcohol.

* * *

The girls all met in the odd room Adhara had found last year. Normally it looked like her training dojo, but today it had comfortable couches and plenty of space to wait the hangover out.

Not that she didn't already have the ingredients to make seven Inoue specials just in case.

Soon the girls were belting out some rather raunchy drinking songs. Lily outdid them all, since she was part Irish. Her father sometimes belted out a few good ones, to the horror of her mother and sister.

"Seven Drunken nights!" yelled Adhara.

"_As I came home on Monday night as drunk as drunk could be_

_I saw a horse outside the door where my old horse should be_

_So I called me wife and I said to her: Will you kindly tell to me_

_Who owns that horse outside the door where my old horse should be?_

_Ah, you're drunk,_

_you're drunk you silly old fool,_

_still you can not see_

_That's a lovely sow that me mother sent to me_

_Well, many is a day I've traveled a hundred miles or more_

_But a sow with a saddle on sure I never seen before_

_Now as I came home on Tuesday night as drunk as drunk could be_

_I saw a coat behind the door where my old coat should be_

_So I called me wife and I said to her: Will you kindly tell to me_

_Who owns that coat behind the door where my old coat should be_

_Ah, you're drunk,_

_you're drunk you silly old fool,_

_still you can not see_

_That's a lovely blanket that me mother sent to me_

_Well, many is a day I've traveled a hundred miles or more_

_But buttons in a blanket sure I never seen before_

_And as I went home on Wednesday night as drunk as drunk could be_

_I saw a pipe up on the chair where my old pipe should be_

_Well, I called the wife and I said to her: Will you kindly tell to me_

_Who owns that pipe up on the chair where my old pipe should be_

_Ah, you're drunk,_

_you're drunk you silly old fool,_

_still you can not see_

_That's a lovely tin whistle that me mother sent to me_

_Well, it's many a day I've traveled a hundred miles or more_

_But tobacco in a tin whistle sure I never seen before_

_And as I went home on Thursday night as drunk as drunk could be_

_I saw two boots beneath the bed where my two boots should be_

_Well, I called me wife and I said to her: Will you kindly tell to me_

_Who owns those boots beneath the bed where my old boots should be_

_Ah, you're drunk,_

_you're drunk you silly old fool,_

_still you can not see_

_They're two lovely Geranium pots me mother sent to me_

_Well, it's many a day I've traveled a hundred miles or more_

_But laces in Geranium pots I never seen before_

_And as I went home on Friday night as drunk as drunk could be_

_I saw a head upon the bed where my old head should be_

_Well, I called me wife and I said to her: Will you kindly tell to me_

_Who owns that head upon the bed where my old head should be_

_Ah, you're drunk,_

_you're drunk you silly old fool,_

_Still you can not see_

_That's a baby boy that my mother send to me_

_Hey, it's many a day I've traveled a hundred miles or more_

_But a baby boy with whiskers on I've never seen before."_

(_Author's Note: This is an actual Irish drinking song, and you can hear it on youtube. The ones that sing it best is the Dubliners.)_

Adhara pulled out an old guitar from out of nowhere, and began to strum it. The girls began to clap in time as she began to sing another Irish drinking song.

"_\Whisky you're the devil_

_You're leading me astray_

_Over hills and mountains_

_And to Amerikay_

_You're sweeter, stronger, decenter, _

_And spunkier than tea_

_Oh whisky you're my darling drunk or sober_

_Now brave boys, we're on for march_

_Off to Portugal and Spain_

_Drums are beating, banners flying _

_The Devil all home we'll come tonight_

_Love, fare thee well_

_With me tithery-aye me doodle-ah-m'dah_

_Me tithery-aye me doodle-ah-m'dah_

_Me rikes fall to ra laddie-o_

_There's whisky in the jar_

_Hey! Whisky you're the devil_

_You're leading me astray_

_Over hills and mountains_

_And to Amerikay_

_You're sweeter, stronger, decenter, _

_And spunkier than tea_

_Oh whisky you're my darling drunk or sober_

_Says the mother do not wrong me_

_Don't take me daughter from me_

_For if you do I will torment you_

_An' after death, my ghost will haunt you_

_Love, fare thee well_

_With me tithery-aye me doodle-ah-m'dah_

_Me tithery-aye me doodle-ah-m'dah_

_Me rikes fall to ra laddie-o_

_There's whisky in the jar_

_Hey! Whisky you're the devil_

_You're leading me astray_

_Over hills and mountains_

_And to Amerikay_

_You're sweeter, stronger, decenter, _

_And spunkier than tea_

_Oh whisky you're my darling drunk or sober_

_Now, the French are fighting boldly_

_Men are dying hot and coldly_

_Give every man his flask of powder_

_His firelock on his shoulder_

_Love, fare thee well_

_With me tithery-aye me doodle-ah-m'dah_

_Me tithery-aye me doodle-ah-m'dah_

_Me rikes fall to ra laddie-o_

_There's whisky in the jar_

_Hey! Whisky you're the devil_

_You're leading me astray_

_Over hills and mountains_

_And to Amerikay_

_You're sweeter, stronger, decenter, _

_And spunkier than tea_

_Oh whisky you're my darling drunk or sober."_

The girls all cheered. Adhara had a wonderful voice. She took another shot of the vodka, and started singing another song she had heard once. It was by a country artist.

"_She put him out like the burnin' end of a midnight cigarette_

_She broke his heart, he spent his whole life tryin' to forget_

_We watched him drink his pain away a little at a time_

_But he never could get drunk enough to get her off his mind_

_Until the night_

_He put that bottle to his head and pulled the trigger_

_And finally drank away her memory_

_Life is short, but this time it was bigger_

_Than the strength he had to get up off his knees_

_We found him with his face down in the pillow_

_With a note that said, 'I'll love her till I die.'_

_And when we buried him beneath the willow_

_The angels sang a whiskey lullaby_

_The rumors flew but nobody knew how much she blamed herself_

_For years and years she tried to hide the whiskey on her breath_

_She finally drank her pain away a little at a time_

_But she never could get drunk enough to get him off her mind_

_Until the night_

_She put that bottle to her head and pulled the trigger_

_And finally drank away his memory_

_Life is short, but this time it was bigger_

_Than the strength she had to get up off her knees_

_We found her with her face down in the pillow_

_Clinging to his picture for dear life_

_We laid her next to him beneath the willow_

_While the angels sang a whiskey lullaby"_

Narcissa had tears in her eyes.

"That is such a sweet song," she said.

"I heard it once, and looked up the lyrics. I loved it too," admitted Adhara.

"What's it called?"

"Whiskey Lullaby. I heard it long before it was aired in America. It's by this guy called Brad Paisley, but he's not real popular yet so you'd be hard put to find his work," lied Adhara.

That kept them from asking where to get a copy (at least from Lily).

"I didn't know you could sing that good," said Molly.

"I don't advertise it. I would rather be known as someone strong. Besides, my mother once took me to this teacher who taught how to sing in the opera. I tried to keep up, but I quit after a year of it."

* * *

_The next morning..._

There were groans of pain as the girls felt the effects of drinking an entire bottle of vodka. Though thankfully they barely shared more than a cup or two between them. It had been a fairly small bottle.

Adhara shared the Inoue special out, making sure they didn't see what she added to the simple pot of coffee. They would never drink it if they knew.

Too late she realized she had given the girls too much, and didn't have enough for herself. It was with great pain that she made her way with the others to the great hall. Thanks to the concoction she gave the others, they didn't show any signs of their little alcohol induced stupor from the night before. Though Lily and Bella were still wincing from the volume level. (Then again they drank more than the others.)

Adhara quickly grabbed the things she would need to make her concoction again, and with practiced ease added the ingredients to her coffee cup without thinking.

She didn't realize that she had left it to cool until Sirius grabbed it while the spoon was still stirring.

"Hand it over if you value your life," she snarled.

Sirius took one look at her bloodshot eyes, and winced with sympathy.

"What did you drink last night?" he asked.

"You can tell?"

"Your eyes gave you away," he told her.

"Vodka."

He winced. That was a harder alcohol than even James had ever tried.

"Why?"

"Colorless and it wouldn't give us up right away. As far as the teachers know, we were hit with a spell to make us act drunk," she told him.

She grabbed the cup, and made a face as she drank the coffee. It had gone too cold for the taste to be anything but horrid. On the plus side, she could barely taste the odd twang of the Inoue Special.

Five minutes later it kicked in, and she finally started eating her breakfast.

"Who was with you?" asked Sirius.

"Your three cousins, Molly and Lily. Lily actually knows some really good Irish drinking songs," said Adhara with a straight face.

Sirius gave Lily a shocked look. He would never have guessed that!

"Remind me to take her with us next time we go drinking."

Adhara winced as the volume of a nearby classmate hit her ears. Inoue special or not, she was still suffering from a bad hangover.

Aside from pranking James by turning his hair Slytherin green and silver for the rest of the week, the day passed uneventfully.

That all quickly changed by the next morning.

* * *

_Why is my head itching so bad?_

Adhara walked into the shower, and did her morning routine. It took her five minutes to realize something was wrong as she washed her hair.

_Wait...why do I have hair past my neck?_

She washed the soap out of her eyes, and pulled her hair from behind her back. And promptly shrieked in anger.

Her hair was almost to the floor! It never went past her ears for the past sixteen years!

"_JAMES POTTER, I AM GOING TO STRANGLE YOU!"_

Lily walked into the bathroom, wondering what could have happened to Adhara, and stared in complete shock. There was some strange girl with long raven black hair in Adhara's stall!

"Who the hell are you?" demanded Lily, thinking it was one of the Marauder's fan girls about to prank Adhara.

Only to find Adhara staring at her, rage in her eyes.

"I am going to kill him!"

"Adhara?"

"James Potter is a dead man!"

Lily barely managed to keep the girl from running out without a towel and killing Potter.

Once Adhara had calmed down (and finished her shower) Lily got Molly and they managed to put her by now floor length hair into a tight braid. Lily didn't mind sharing her hair ties.

It took all of five seconds for James to realize that yes, Adhara now had long hair and was out for his blood.

He quickly ran to McGonagall and hid behind her.

"Come out and get your bruises like a man!" snarled Adhara.

"Ms. Adhara, why do you think it was Mr. Potter who did this (she waved at the girl's hair) to you?"

"Someone had to have, because I have never had my hair grow past my ears since I was five! And he would try something like this for the prank I used on his yesterday!"

"I'm not that suicidal! Last time I pranked a girl's hair, Lily nearly castrated me!" James said quickly.

James had thrown a sugar quill in Lily's hair, and it had taken weeks for her hair to grow back after she had cut it out. She had retaliated by shaving his head and told him in no uncertain terms if he tried it again she would kill him with her bare hands. And by the way she was acting, he believed her!

It took them five minutes before she believed James.

Adhara promptly went to breakfast, and made an Inoue special the same way she did yesterday. While it was still warm, she put it in an unused potions vial and took it to Severus.

"I have a task for you."

Snape had decided to help Adhara with her potions homework. He would give her the pages she needed to look up the answers, and she would write her essays based on his information.

"What?"

"When this cools off, could you tell me what effects it would have? It's known for waking people up in the morning and curing mild to medium hangovers, or dulling the effects of bad hangovers."

"Why do you need to know what it does?"

She pulled out her hair from the bun she had put it in. His jaw dropped in shock.

"Because I suspect drinking this cold caused _this_."

Snape took the vial, and waited fifteen minutes before he opened it.

By dinner he had an answer for her.

"Aside from wanting to know why you even drink this...concoction...almost every morning, I found it does have a side effect when it's cold."

"What?"

"Drinking these ingredients, when stirred properly and left to chill unblocks growth in several areas such as hair, height and weight. I don't know if it also works on magic that's been blocked, but I wouldn't be surprised. Where in the name of Morgana did you find this recipe?"

"A friend made it for me when I was suffering from a week of long exams. It was right before I graduated from my magical classes. I didn't know what it was, but afterwords I asked her for her recipe. It's called an Inoue special."


	9. Chapter 9

It took all of a week for people to realize that yes, Adhara had suddenly grown out her hair. At least the girls were sympathetic to her new problem of keeping it out of the way.

Lily and Molly seemed to rather enjoy braiding Adhara's extremely long hair. Sixteen years of not growing had suddenly caught up with her. Even the times she felt like growing it out, it had remained the same.

She wasn't going to cut it just yet.

Once the shock was over about the length of her hair, she found herself facing a new problem.

Boys were actually starting to take notice of her. At first they had trouble thinking of her as a girl, since she just looked like a feminine boy. Now that her hair was long, they started looking at her as another girl.

And that annoyed her to no end.

* * *

Today was potions.

"We are going to be studying the blood heritage potion today. Team up with your partner and begin."

Adhara was the only person who would team up with Severus. His abrasive personality and utter dedication to his work grated on the other students.

Adhara liked that about him, because it meant he was less likely to blow up the potion than the next person.

This was one potion she almost didn't want to complete, for different reasons.

While it wouldn't matter either way how this particular potion turned out (it wasn't on the OWLs) she was actually quite nervous.

Ever since she was young, she had always wondered who her birth parents were. And why they had never followed the rather open adoption. Any detective or cop could have followed the paper trail right to their doorstep. They hadn't bothered to hide her or moved from the same house in sixteen years.

But no one ever came. She was both happy and sad about that fact.

Happy, because it meant no one would ever take her away from her parents. And sad, because it meant no one wanted her back.

Snape hissed at her, and she added the ingredient. He was a harsh potions partner, and he demanded perfection.

When they were done, the teacher tested each of the finished products. The one who tested it was James Potter, if only to keep his grades up.

He was one of those who had botched his.

The teacher nodded as the paper spread out like it was supposed to. He rolled it up before it was finished.

Snape didn't care that Adhara had saved some for herself. He knew she was adopted. It wasn't like she had tried to hide that fact.

James took the paper with him, mostly so he could see if he had any cousins left alive.

* * *

Adhara pricked her finger and added some of the potion. The paper began to ink itself as it listed all her family members down to the earliest century.

It was the names at the top that her eyes were glued on.

_Father: James Charles Potter (unreadable Kanji)_

_Mother: Lily Anne Potter ne Evans (unreadable Kanji)_

"No...it can't be..."

She did it again on another paper. Same results.

So she went to Snape and said "How accurate are these potions?"

"Blood calls to blood. So accurate enough that Gringotts uses it to test for anyone claiming to be from a noble line. Why?"

She decided to give a half truth.

"Because according to the potion we did, I'm an Heir of Gryffindor."

Snape stared at her in shock. She had never joked about something like this before. And he couldn't see what she would gain by lying about it.

She showed him the bottom of the scroll, careful to hide her parents names.

_Godric Gryffindor_

He fainted from shock.

* * *

James looked at the paper in disbelief.

"Who's potion did the professor use?" he asked finally.

"Snape and Adhara, why?" asked Sirius.

James showed them the paper, and their jaws dropped.

"Adhara...is related to _you_?" said Peter.

"Closely related, if that color is anything to go by," said Remus.

"Where is she?" asked James.

"She saved some of their potion, and then went to see Snape ten minutes ago. I think she wanted to find out who her birth parents were..." said Remus.

It wasn't a great secret that Adhara was adopted with no knowledge of her birth parents. She just didn't lord that fact about or care who knew.

* * *

Adhara came back in, still in shock over the results of the test. She didn't fight James as he dragged her into the boys dorm and then locked the door. Sirius and Remus knew they needed to talk.

"So you got the same results I did?" he asked.

"If by that you mean that I know we're related, then _yes_," she said sourly.

"I don't understand! I would have heard of someone like you if we were related!"

"Not exactly..." she said.

He gave her a look.

"I'm not from this time. I happen to own a time turner, and when that flaming chicken grabbed me it reacted badly to it. That's how I ended up falling from the sky like I did," she explained.

"So you're..."

"From roughly thirty years into your future," she told him bluntly.

His jaw dropped, but it explained more than it didn't.

"Where are you from?"

"The East. If word got out where I really was from, they would try to find where I live and ask too many questions."

He could understand that. If anyone knew what country she was from, they would discover she was from the wrong time.

"How the hell are you going to return to your time then?"

"Easy. I wait it out, then return to where I was the moment that parakeet grabbed me."

He gave her an incredulous look.

"You expect people to ignored the fact you're thirty years older?"

"The dead don't age that fast, idiot."

She realized she slipped up with that little tidbit.

"You're...?"

"I'm dead. Have been since I was a year and a half apparently. The only reason I feel and look solid is because of the time turner's influence."

Seeing his blank expression, she gave him an annoyed look.

"Using magic on a ghost makes it corporeal, or visible to even the most mundane person. When a ghost, or rather a soul like me uses it, it turns us solid until the magic wears off. Much easier to blend in than you would think," she said amused.

James apparently filed that information far into his brain, and instead decided to focus on _how_ the hell Adhara was related to him of all people! The way she acted, she should have been related to Sirius or even Snape!

"Perhaps this should explain _how_ we are related."

She gave him her paper...and upon reading the first line he fainted from outright shock.

She poked him, and then opened the door. Sirius took one look at James and then at her.

"I didn't use magic, if that is what you are thinking. He fainted like a little girl when he saw the results of _my_ blood test," she told him highly amused.

Snickering now, Sirius levitated James onto his bed and she left. Time to repeat the process with Lily and really have blackmail material.

* * *

Molly walked in on Lily's faint, and gave Adhara an annoyed look.

"How are you going to explain this to McGonagall?" she asked.

"Tell her the truth. She fainted from outright shock."

Adhara pulled out her stick, and said _"Aquamenti."_

Lily woke up sputtering, then looked at Adhara. Her expression was still poleaxed.

"How is this possible?"

Molly had left to get a towel for Lily. Conjuring was never her strong suit.

"Time travel. And interference from the headmaster's pet parakeet."

Accepting that (magic would do as it pleased, regardless of who suffered from it's actions) Lily looked Adhara right in the eye.

"We are still friends, right?"

"Better believe it. The only parents I've ever known as still alive in my time, and no one had even bothered to come looking for me even with the paper trail. I gave up on someone coming to claim me years ago."

* * *

Word spread very fast that Adhara was related to James Potter, though after what she did to Peter for blabbing no one would hold that name against her.

She was still Adhara, no matter what her family name was.

Of course Dumbledore, the idiot, tried to cultivate her by steering several acceptable pure blood boys her way. It took two seconds and one of her stronger death glares to get the tale out of them.

Afterwords she walked up to him during dinner and told him in no uncertain terms to stay the hell out of her love life or suffer the most horrific death she could come up with.

And then the boys left her alone. Well...almost alone.

* * *

Lucius was on a mission from the Dark Lord. He was to bring the Potter girl (her name apparently spread past Hogwarts) to him. He was going to make her his Dark Lady after the display of sheer power she showed the day she destroyed one of his most used hideouts.

He went around the corner, and found an unusual sight. Adhara Potter (she refused to answer to her last name) was sitting on the grass with a snake in front of her. It was a poisonous one from the markings on it's scales.

Then his heart nearly stopped when he got close enough to realize something.

She was talking to the snake! And with perfect ease!

He abandoned his current mission to capture her (he didn't want to deal with that snake) and went immediately to his room to report what he just saw.

_In Voldemort's hideout_

He read the letter with interest. So the girl was a parselmouth as well as a pure-blood of age? His desire to make her his Dark Lady only grew. The fact that she apparently liked snakes at all didn't hurt either.

If only he could get around the odd reaction to her skin. He had no idea why he felt like someone had dared to hit him with the Cruciatus curse when he touched her, for however briefly.

Combining that with the pain he felt from the crash into the wall and subsequent landing into that lake...

He wasn't going to try anything until he could keep that pain from being felt again.

* * *

Adhara found it rather disturbing that most of the boys (and a few girls) who she knew to be Death Eaters started to follow her around everywhere. Snape, who had considered becoming a Death Eater out of spite from Lily's blatant refusal to acknowledge James' bullying, was the only one who could tell Adhara what was really going on.

"Apparently the Dark Lord has decided to make you his. Something you did has really sparked his interest in you, aside from your destruction of that base."

Adhara reviewed what she knew about the Dark Lord (which was mostly rumors and the like) and suddenly she paled.

She had felt someone nearby that day she was talking to Kyoko in broad daylight, but they hadn't come close enough for her to identify who it was.

Clearly someone had told Voldemort about her ability to snake speak. An ability that was classed as Dark by the general populace.

"Oh bloody hell. I knew I should have run after whoever saw that..." she facepalmed.

"Saw what?"

She made very sure there weren't any portraits or house elves. The ghosts in general avoided her like the plague once they realized _what_ she was unless she had a question for them.

They were completely alone. A silencing cone around the two of them only insured their privacy.

"You're an Occulmens, right?"

"A natural one, yes. Why?"

"What I tell you must absolutely stay between us. It must never leave this spot."

Snape, who had trusted her even after learning she was related to Potter of all people, nodded. The fact that she trusted someone like him spoke volumes.

So it was with great shock when she hissed, and a gorgeous snake slithered off her waist and onto her shoulder.

"You're a parselmouth?"

"Now you see why I never said anything. You're quite possibly the only person I have told about it."

"So someone saw you talking to..."

"Kyoko. I named her Kyoko."

"Kyoko, and told the Dark Lord?" he finished.

"I should have chased the sneaky bastard down. Now that creep knows about it and has his lackeys following me!" she whined.

Snape was sympathetic to her problem. His father and peers kept pressuring him to join the Dark Lord. They refused to leave him alone before, unless he was with Adhara.

And now they were following them both.

"Why do I get the feeling the only way this is going to end is to use the initial release?" she asked rhetorically.

She didn't expect him to understand, and was glad when he didn't.

Adhara had avoided using her shikai for a few reasons since arriving in the past.

One: her presence alone had destabilized the future she lived in, and she took great pains not to ruin it.

Two: she didn't really need to use her shikai or her time turner since arriving.

Three: using her shikai would have only alerted Avalon to her presence, and through them the Soul Society. The future Kyoko had shown her when she revealed her sword's power was still very much alive, even thirty years in the past.

So no, she didn't fight any hollows, even when the Menos showed up. Repeatedly. Over summer vacation.

"I hate England."

* * *

Over the next month before Christmas holidays, Adhara prepares for the trip she is about to take. For the first time in her life, she is going to meet her biological grandparents. Her adoptive ones had died when she was five. All she remembers of them was the kindness they had shown her, and the warm touch.

In order to keep her stalkers from realizing she has left the school, Lily agreed to play her daughter for a few days. Snape hated his parents house since his mother died. So he generally stayed at the school anyway.

He supplied Lily with enough polyjuice potion to keep up the ruse.

_On the train..._

Adhara removed the invisibility cloak that James loaned her. Only Remus and Sirius were with them. Peter had decided to stay behind for some reason.

Sirius decided to open up the conversation.

"So you're James' cousin from the future?" he finally asked.

"Who else did you tell?" she asked James, annoyed.

"Just Remus and Sirius. Peter's too much of an idiot to keep something that big a secret."

"Like my last name?" she said dryly.

She looked at the three of them.

"Right. I've gone by the name Tatsuki Arisawa for fifteen years, and I've lived a double life until now. This is the longest I've ever gone without using my time turner to keep up the lie."

She told them everything they wanted to know, like why she had never bothered to find her parents before now.

James really wanted to know why she had ended up on a doorstep, when there was no way in hell he would have left his daughter like that.

"I haven't a clue. No one was around when my parents adopted me, and no one had ever challenged the adoption."

"Why have those Death Eater wannabes been following you lately?" asked Sirius.

She made a face.

"Someone was spying on me, and I didn't think to chase them down at the time. Now the Dark Moron is very, very determined to make me into the Dark Lady."

There was a hiss, and Kyoko made herself known. Seeing the boys jump, Adhara tried not to giggle.

"Be nice Kyoko."

_~But partner, why should I? Idiots like them only despise my cousins and treated me like crap!~_

Adhara petted her head, not allowing her own father to know she spoke snake.

"You...own a snake?" James asked, his shock very clear in his voice.

"Not a snake, idiot. Back home there are plenty of tales of dragons disguising themselves as snakes so they can sunbathe in peace. She just can't take her true form here."

Which was quite true. Since Kyoko realized that Adhara not only recognized her for what she actually _was_, but was willing to keep her around, the disguised dragon had decided to become the girl's familiar.

Adhara had never taken a familiar before. With her double life, such a thing would have been pointless. Familiars, as a rule, tended to follow their partners _everywhere. _And having one would have been more of a hassle than she was willing to put up with.

Kyoko was different. She pretended to be a snake, but she was one of a rare breed of dragon that could move freely from the world of the living to the world of the soul society.


	10. Chapter 10

When Charles Potter read the letter from his son, he thought the boy had written it while drunk.

Only to learn from a friend that James wasn't joking in the least.

James' daughter (a girl who was at least a year older than the boy himself) had apparently appeared without warning and crashed into the lake using wandless magic last year.

The girl then proceeds to turn the castle upside down, forges friendships from every single class from muggleborn to pure-blood, and from every house. She also manages to keep the Marauders in line, where even the Headmaster had failed!

And over the summer she destroyed a Death Eater hideout singlehandedly and according to the rumors stared down the Dark Lord himself without flinching!

So yes, Charles Potter was quite eager to meet his granddaughter from thirty years into the future. If only for the entertainment this girl had wrought in so short a time!

Adhara had to be dragged into the house by Sirius and James. Sirius never went home for Christmas anymore. He preferred crashing with James. (He already had his own room in the Potter home, when Charles realized that he was nothing like his family at all.)

She stood at attention while her grandfather looked her over. She had never felt this nervous in a long time.

When the man grinned wildly, she relaxed.

"Definitely a Potter," he announced.

Her grandmother walked in with food, which the boys immediately went to.

Much to her relief, her grandparents didn't care about Kyoko being around her shoulders. They had been to Japan once, and Charles remembered a few old tales about snakes turning out to be dragons.

It took little explaining (and a few laughs at her description of Fawkes and Dumbledore) for them to accept her.

Of course they had to see her time turner before her tale of the phoenix magic reacting badly to the time magic of the artifact could be believed.

It wasn't until she mentioned that she had absolutely no idea who her parents were until recently that the air changed.

"I was found on a doorstep in Surrey, with only a thin blanket. My parents didn't know who I was, or even why I was there. A week later they had adopted me, leaving a clear trail to follow in case my family wanted to reclaim me. I spent fifteen years in Japan, and not once had anyone come asking about a girl left on a doorstep in November."

"No one came looking for you?"

"If the state of your Ministry is anything to go by, then I am fairly sure that is actually a good thing. How long has it been since any _real_ changes were made to the infrastructure?" she asked.

Charles grimaced.

"The Ministry of magic hasn't changed that much in nearly a century, aside from new people taking over old posts."

"And from what I have seen, change is so slow coming that it is practically nonexistent. Certain...aspects...of my life would almost certainly be frowned upon, if not outright banned. I wouldn't even _be_ here if that damn parakeet hadn't tried to kidnap me."

Charles again chuckled at her description of Fawkes. He had almost been worried that Adhara was a violent, humorless girl who only thought of fighting.

Adhara didn't hide the fact she was dead. She just didn't draw attention to it.

"How are you able to be seen? If you didn't tell us you were dead, we would never have figured it out," said her grandmother.

"Magic. We did quite a bit of study on _that_ question, once my instructors realized that I had already died when I was eighteen months. Accidental magic kept me in a physical and corporeal form until I was deemed trustworthy enough to obtain a rare, stronger version of the time turner. After that, every time I used it, the time magic helped to keep people from knowing about it."

* * *

It had turned out to be a successful Christmas. Adhara finally got to reconnect with her father's family, and had solidified her story of being James' first cousin. Apparently she had an uncle who had died recently.

As far as the Ministry was concerned, she was _his_ daughter.

Adhara found the OWLs to be even more tedious, if that was possible, than the end of year midterms.

She shocked all of the instructors when she produced a corporeal patronus, a perfectly formed conjuration, could summon an actual unicorn, and proceeded to make a perfect potion known commonly as _Liquid Luck_.

In short, she completely blew the poor examiners out of the water. Which is when one woman had enough common sense to ask why she wasn't taking Advanced classes instead.

"I have more fun tormenting my cousin if I stay in the regular."

Once the school year was over, Adhara found herself living in the Potter home with Sirius (who had just run away from home permanently) and James.

* * *

Halfway into summer break, she got an interesting owl from Narcissa.

"_Dear Adhara,_

_I would formally like to ask for your help in controlling my fiance. Could you please show me those techniques of yours that you use to keep your cousin in line? I happen to know plenty of girls who are interested in learning what you call martial arts._

_Narcissa."_

The evil look that spread on Adhara's face sent James and Sirius screaming from the room.

"_Narcissa, _

_Get me a time, a place big enough for all the girls in Hogwarts, and warn them to wear outfits that are easy to move in. Those boys won't know what hit them!"_

It took less than three days for the girls to be rounded up. Adhara had gotten permission by lying her ass off to most of the pure-blood parents. If Dumbledore had any idea what was about to hit Hogwarts, he would have done everything in his power to stop her.

Adhara had the girls spent a week together in her makeshift training camp. Every girl from first year to last year's graduates had shown up. Normally she would have had to spend months teaching them to throw a right hook, or how to place their feet properly for maximum damage.

Instead she cheated, and used her sword's power to stop time. Instead of spending a week in that place, they spent seven months.

When they went home, there was a dramatic change to the girls from Hogwarts.

* * *

Bellatrix Black found herself facing a problem. Her mother was going to make her marry one of the Lestrange boys...who fully supported the Dark Lord.

After meeting Adhara (who turned out to be her first real friend, who could care less if she was less than sane) she had started to see that pure-bloods were not the unequivocal rulers of the world.

If anything, Adhara acted more like a pure-blood should than most of her so called friends!

And after watching the penseive memory of her friend punching the Dark Lord into a nearby lake...

She lost all interest in becoming a Death Eater. Becoming a follower of Adhara seemed like a much saner choice.

She wasn't alone in that idea. Without even trying, Adhara had managed to gather the largest force of supporters Europe had ever seen.

She was brash, violent, and blunt. But unlike the so called Light side or the Dark side, she actually took care of those who followed in her footsteps. She even went so far as to bend the rules to protect them.

So if she had to choose between Voldemort or Dumbledore...she would go straight to Adhara's side in a heartbeat. Or vanish from Europe until the fighting died down.

Adhara was reading from the Potter family library when she felt herself being thrown into her inner world.

She had noticed something interesting about her inner world. It changed according to which persona she happened to be in at the time.

As Tatsuki, it became a large dojo with plenty of training equipment. The floor was a standard tatami mat, with a bar full of caffeinated drinks to keep her awake. On one side of the dojo was a door which lead to the most massive library ever seen. Past that was a room full of movies and a screen to watch them on. On the opposite side were shelves upon shelves of music. Her guitar (which stayed in that room unless she summoned it) hung on the wall behind the CD player.

As Adhara, her room resembled the Eleventh division barracks somewhat. Her room (she had been given her own room immediately after being assigned to Squad Eleven. Unohana apparently had...words...with the idiots who had refused to move out originally.) was the same as it always was. Comfortable and completely hers. The only ones allowed in it without being kicked out in the most painful/violent way available were the captain, Ikkaku, Yumechika and of course Yachiru.

In the rather fortified squad eleven dojo (which had to be rebuilt at least ten times until she found a way to keep the walls from exploding from Zaraki's spiritual pressure going out of control) was her zanpakuto's room.

Though it was more a large room filled wall to wall with something akin to television screens than walls. (She had asked once, and Kyoko told her that the mirrors made better scrying tools than TVs.) The floor was covered in a rather intricate (and confusing) magical circle, which she would never consider trying to copy without Kyoko's help.

Apparently it amplified her powers over Time to the point that she could see into the future at will.

Adhara stared at her sword spirit, who was one of the rare female swords. She appeared about the same as her, only with honey colored hair instead of her raven locks. In her hands was the staff that helped her focus her powers over time.

"What's wrong?"

"_I found a way to take us home. But you aren't going to like it."_

She sighed.

"Lay it on me."

"_You'll have to sign a formal familiar contract with that dragon we now own. Doing that will help unlock your bankai state as well as give you a secondary shikai that you can actually use in public. The only catch is that your time powers will be boosted to the point where it might interfere with the time turner. Chances are the thing would no longer work around the dragon."_

"I thought you said I wouldn't like it?"

"_You'll have to relearn your spiritual control fairly quickly after signing the contract,"_ the sword informed her.

Adhara winced. Then an idea occurred to her. A rather amusing idea.

"In that case... I think it's time to upgrade my old transformation rituals."

Adhara awoke sometime during the night. Midnight on a full moon was the most recommended time to sign a familiar contract. Particularly on the night of a solstice.

Since her power revolved around darkness in general (it was always dark in Kyoko's area of her soul) she would have to wait for Winter Solstice.

She triple checked the calender and was relieved when she saw it would be a full moon that night.

* * *

"Hey Adhara, is it true that McGonagall said she would teach you how to become an animagus?" asked James.

"Since I'm only British by birth, yes. I had considered taking that class when I was a kid, but I found summoning spells to be more interesting."

Everyone had seen her summoning of a large unicorn during the exam. They weren't going to see what _else _she could summon when irritated.

"...Can you help us?" asked Sirius finally.

"I know about your little project, and I will help on two conditions."

They awaited.

"One: you are not to bully anyone for the rest of the year. If you catch someone else bullying, I want you to at least attempt to step in and help the victim."

James nodded. That was easy enough.

"Two: if I help you two then you have to accompany Moony on those nights he loses control."

"That's the reason why we started learning how. To keep Moony company," said James.

Adhara nodded. They struck the agreement.

* * *

Lily looked rather...pleased...with herself when Adhara finally found her.

She gave her a look and said bluntly, "What did you do and why?"

"I finally gave my damn sister a taste of her own medicine after she shot another one of her rather filthy insults about me. I despise being called a freak by my own flesh and blood," said Lily angrily.

Adhara hated the word freak too, though she never could explain _why_. About the only time she could accept it's use was when someone was describing another person's rather interesting obsession.

Otaku are weird.

"So how did she react?"

"Petunia couldn't seem to believe that instead of using my magic like I did when we were little, I had actually slapped her so hard that there was a bruise the next morning. Your...lessons came in handy."

Adhara grinned.

"Glad to be of service!"

Narcissa and Bella walked in, both highly amused.

"Are you aware that if you are ever kicked out of the Potter family our aunt Walpurga is more than willing to adopt you on sight?" asked Narcissa.

Seeing her surprised look, Narcissa continued, her amusement clear to all.

"She saw me decking Lucius after he made a crash comment about the fact that I was nothing more than a tool for breeding, and asked where I learned to punch so well."

"She was so impressed that it was you who taught us that she is more than willing to adopt you if you want!" finished Bella.

Surprised, Adhara asked "What about Sirius?"

Narcissa had this strange look, like she couldn't believe what her aunt had told her.

"If you chose to allow the adoption, then you would automatically become the Black heir. That almost never happens!"

"What would you recommend?" Adhara asked. She had never considered this happening.

"ACCEPT!" said Narcissa and Bella in unison. Having such a thing made public would protect her from more of the nasty things in the magical communities, and it would make it that much harder for Dumbledore to actually influence her.

Besides, the Blacks were almost as old as the Potter family.

"I can think of a good cover story right off the bat for accepting," said Adhara.

The girls leaned in.

"It's a well known rumor that James is supposedly my pure-blood cousin on his father's side. He is obviously the Heir of the Potter fortune... So why not claim that I accepted the offer so I wouldn't have to fight over the family fortune?"

Narcissa clapped her hands in glee. It was the perfect ruse, and it was somewhat true.

Besides, at least this way she would have a cousin she could tolerate talking to.

Adhara grinned in a dangerous manner.

"And it will keep people from questioning why I am performing a rare and almost certainly _banned_ ritual on the night of the Winter Solstice this year."

Every shot her a look.

"What ritual?" asked Lily finally.

"The Ritual of Familiar Binding. There are two types that I currently know of from my school back home. The standard ritual, which involves splitting your magic with an animal and binding it to you for as long as one of you lives."

Narcissa and Bella waited with baited breath.

"And then there is the lesser used Ritual of Partnership. Most people don't like it because they would have to stick with one familiar for the rest of their lives. But it's not really used unless your partner is in some way immortal, because the magic that goes into it is sent back to the Earth when one dies...and you never regain what you put into it afterwords."

"Why? I would think that people would like using that one," said Lily.

"Because the magic that is transferred is blood magic. You have to partake and share blood with the creature you are binding to you."

"And blood magic was banned in England almost immediately after the Statute of Secrecy was created," nodded Narcissa.

"What is your familiar going to be?" asked Bella eagerly. She was like a puppy sometimes. The kind that always came back, even when their master was terribly cruel to it.

Probably why Adhara had quickly taken the girl under her wing, if only to keep her insanity at a socially permitted level.

Adhara did something that shocked every girl in that compartment to silence. She had long since cast a charm to keep people from hearing what was said in that spot.

_Come out Kyoko._

The snake slithered up from her waist, her preferred spot. She grinned at their shocked looks, and said "Yes, I already knew I could use parseltongue."

Narcissa woke from her shock first.

"So _that's_ why He became obsessively interested in you..."

Adhara made a face as she said "Your...consort...happened to see me when I was talking to Kyoko. I knew I should have chased that idiot when I first sensed he was there."

Which prompted her to explain the rather specialized classes she had taken when she first learned of her gift. Narcissa and Lily seemed very interested in the classes. Bella sat there, smiling like she always did, while reading a book Adhara had given her to keep her entertained.

It continued like that until the point where they reached the station.


	11. Chapter 11

Lily went around the corner. She had heard the whimpers from a room away, and after being around Adhara for nearly two years, she had learned to act first when someone was in trouble.

(Upon learning the fact that the girl she admired as a role model was in fact _her_ daughter, she asked the girl what her middle name would be, when she was finally born. It had taken her a good hour to come up with a name Lily really liked. That name was Midnight.)

What happened next changed how Lily saw James.

A Slytherin first year was being bullied by one of the few boys who had managed to keep his nasty attitude after Adhara had...words...with most of the boys when she first arrived. She didn't tolerate bullying, especially when it was her own house doing it.

James was standing between the poor first year and the bully, glaring. Finally, after a particularly snide remark about Adhara, James hexed the boy so badly that he would have to be transferred to St. Mungo's for care.

* * *

Adhara couldn't believe her ears when she first learned that Lily Evans had _finally_ accepted one of James Potter's request for a date.

Still, she had more important things to worry about at the moment.

Surprisingly enough, her adoption into the Black family (and subsequently becoming Sirius's step sister, to his horror) had managed to remain a total secret from the rather well informed grapevine.

Which was perfectly fine by her, because it meant that Dumbledore wouldn't know about it until after the fact. Which meant when she secured her own seat of power in the rather tumultuous pure-blood power scheme, he would be in for a rather rude awakening.

Walpurga had been absolutely delighted to learn that Adhara was willing to take her up on the offer. Even more so when in a few short letters, she had established herself as a powerful, intelligent and rather ruthless witch who wasn't above hexing the illustrious Albus bloody Dumbledore in the back.

While the Black family could stand and even support Voldemort in his war, they couldn't _stand_ Dumbledore. So long as Adhara refused to back the old man up, they wouldn't have any problems.

(It was part of the reason why Sirius had been cast out. Walpurga would have blasted him permanently from the family tapestry had Adhara not assured her that she could..._persuade_...Sirius not to join the headmaster unless he had no other options. Sirius, when he learned of the deal and promised to at least keep in touch with the family, had agreed.)

Adhara was rereading some rather dry and thorough legal documents. There wasn't a chance in hell she was going in without making sure there were no loopholes in there to bite her in the ass later.

It was straightforward enough.

Most of it seemed to be reiterating that she was handing over the claim to the Potter fortune, unless the current Head and Heir died before her, in which case she inherited by default. It also stated that Walpurga was adopting her as a daughter, and making her the Heir to the Black family above Sirius and Regulus.

Regulus normally would have complained about the arrangement, but he had been on the receiving end of Adhara's right hook often enough that he had enough common sense to not question his mother's decision.

In exchange for all of this, Adhara would have to adhere to certain pure-blood customs, though she had made it very clear she would pick her own husband.

Walpurga clearly sympathized with her when she mentioned that she didn't want someone who was by far weaker than her attempting to make her decisions for her, no matter what the marriage laws said.

Adhara did leave the seats in the Wizangamot to Sirius and Regulus.

Once she was finished with rereading the document, she sent it back to Walpurga Black with her signature and a few drops of her blood to assure that it was authentic.

* * *

Two months later, a week before Halloween, Dumbledore received the news that Adhara had become part of the Black family.

Needless to say, he wasn't in a good mood. Since the papers had been signed in triplicate (Adhara had snuck out of the castle for a day to sign the actual consent papers) and filed with the goblins to insure it went through there was absolutely nothing he could do.

Aside from changing Walpurga Black's mind, which was about as likely as Voldemort suddenly liking the color pink.

* * *

Adhara decided to let Walpurga, Narcissa, Bellatrix, James and Lily watch as she awoke the old gods and signed the familiar contract.

She didn't tell them that having each of them at the cardinal points of the star would actually boost the synchronization rate later.

Kyoko waited patiently for her partner to call on her. This would be the first time in ten years that her true form was fully unleashed.

Adhara stepped in the circle. They had decided to do this in one of the Potter castles that was steeped in ancient magic. She had found the perfect point, which would insure the ritual would not be disturbed or fail. Luckily it happened to be in a courtyard.

"_Ancient ones of blood, bone and magic, your daughter calls upon you to oversee the ancient oath sent down from the heavens."_

The star light up like it was still apart of the sky. Since they were so interested in helping her, she had each of them hold a certain object.

For Lily, she held a bloodstone. For James, he held the dragon's blood donated by one of the sanctuaries. For Walpurga, she held a flower which was the symbol for Squad Eleven...not that she was aware of that fact. Narcissa held in her hands an uncut emerald. And Bellatrix held in her hands a werewolf's fang.

"_As ordained by the Ancient Oath, I have summoned my familiar from beyond the planes of existence. By blood and by magic, I bind the familiar named Time Dragon Kyoko to my soul. I, Adhara Midnight Potter-Black, also known to others as Tatsuki Arisawa, fully accept the blood and powers of Time Dragon Kyoko. Should one of the contractors die, the magic given shall return to the Earth and begin anew."_

Kyoko went into the star, and her form lengthened to it's true size. The courtyard wasn't nearly big enough to contain her properly and some of her large bulk went past the walls. Her wings were particularly impressive, as they appeared to be liquid lightning.

"_**I, Time Dragon Kyoko, will share my power with Tatsuki Arisawa, also known to others as Adhara Midnight Potter-Black, until the day that I or my partner dies. The magic we sacrifice for this bond shall return to the Earth and begin anew."**_

Adhara cut her wrist, and Kyoko lowered her head. A single, large drop of blood fell where the cut had been made, and Kyoko licked up the blood spilling from the wrist.

The star glowed a blood red, and the items in the other's hands turned a violent white, before vanishing.

When they could see again, Kyoko had returned to her snake form and Adhara was still there. The contract had been accepted.

"Well, I must say it has been a while since I have seen such an interesting Ritual performed!" said Walpurga.

"Best of all, it's not actually illegal or Dark. If anything it's a neutral one, since anyone can use it."

James, Narcissa and Lily were all staring at Kyoko in shock. They hadn't believed Adhara when she said the snake was really a dragon.

"What?"

"Kyoko...is really a massive dragon?" James asked faintly.

"I told you before, back in my hometown there are plenty of legends of dragons turning into snakes to take a break. It's just luck that I happened to find one so far from home."

* * *

Adhara was torn. On one hand, she now had her bankai unlocked, though she would have to practice it while she was at Hogwarts. On the other hand, with it unlocked, she could no return home to her time.

And she had made so many friends and allies here that it would be difficult leaving them.

Especially Bellatrix, who heavily relied on her to maintain her sanity.

It wasn't until she was in Transfiguration class that an idea occurred to her. She could protect Bellatrix and still head home!

After all, she had little doubt in her mind that the old coot would attempt to kidnap her again. And since he had no idea she was from the future (she could cast a Fidelius charm better than her mother could) he would try again.

This time she would let him, and give him a taste of his own medicine.

Every day when she wasn't training in her new secondary shikai (or on the weekends her bankai) she worked on her animagus form.

She wasn't surprised in the least that it was a wolf.

In order to maintain the peace, she had Snape brew the potion in exchange for at least _trying_ to be civil with the Marauders around.

James, now that he was dating Lily, had managed to quit being such an ass. Sirius was the same as ever, though he at least had a working relationship with his parents.

So long as they maintained a good distance from each other, they could be civil. It wasn't perfect, but it worked.

Peter only came for the ride.

* * *

It took until January before the boys could transform on command. Since Snape had brewed the potion, he joined them.

By year's end, things had actually settled down.

Adhara gathered her friends and allies. She didn't want to stay for seventh year if she could help it.

"What's this about Adhara?" asked Narcissa.

"I need to return home. The tie to where I came from is started to break apart."

"And where is your home?" asked Severus.

"Japan," said Remus immediately.

"Not just Japan. I'm from thirty years in the future. The only people I have told are Lily and James. I have cast a Fidelius charm around my actual information to keep the old man from finding out."

After being around her for two whole years, they could actually believe she wasn't from their time.

Seeing Bellatrix's downcast expression, Adhara slipped something on her wrist.

"This...is a protection bracelet. So long as you wear it, it will help you keep your sanity. I even included a special trick so you can remember how to activate it."

Bellatrix looked at the bracelet, and on the band was a simple activation phrase.

"_**Repeat the stars in the constellation of Canis Major.**_**"**

Adhara was the second star in Canis Major, with Sirius being the first.

Bella hugged her tightly.

"I may pause and come to your weddings though."

Narcissa had been worried she would be all alone on that horrid day. She brightened up immediately.

"Will we ever see you again?" asked Sirius, worried.

Her grin was not reassuring.

"You'll most likely be old and gray by the time I return. Chances are I'll be deaged back to the same point where I entered this time-line. But I guarantee you won't forget about me, no matter how hard the old man and your lame ass Ministry tries to forget."

It was time. In order to keep up appearances, she let the fact she was heading home become known to the old man.

She was heading home. But whether or not she returned was debatable.

"Remember this...there is always light if you know how to look."

Adhara held out her hands, and repeated the new activation phrase for her powers over time.

"_Time Dragon Power, Make Up!"_

And yes, she was still a _Sailor Moon_ fan.

The staff, which had once resembled Sailor Pluto's, now had a brilliant sapphire and emerald dragon curling around the base to rest on the heart. The red crystal had been replaced with the time turner. It had become sand inside the hourglass.

Her outfit had changed too. She had the usual sailor outfit with a subtle upgrade. Unlike the rest of her classmates back when it was popular, she had seen the entire series from beginning to end.

Which was why she looked something akin to Eternal Sailor Moon with a more interesting color scheme,

Instead of the primary colors the main character favored, she had emerald, sapphire and ruby, with deep amethyst for her bows. Where the angel-like wings had been on the character, were Kyoko's liquid lightning dragon wings.

The Christmas she had spent with the Potters had been quite interesting, as her grandmother had the oddest fascination with braiding her hair.

There was a reason why James had such short and unruly hair. His mother loved to braid.

Adhara had let her, and had taken pictures of the ones she really liked. Her current favorite hairstyle was showing, with her long braids flying in the unexpected wind.

Instead of the boots, she had the shoes that Soi Fon and Yoruichi favored for speed. Where the pendant would normally be was the rest of the red jewel that had once decorated her staff. Only about half of it had been used to create the sand in her old time turner. Where her tiara would show what planet she represented, she had replaced with the the necklace Yumechika had given her.

(It was a series of painted cherry blossom flowers in gold. In the center was a crescent moon with actual diamonds. He never said where he got it, or how he had paid for it.)

Her choker was a dragon wrapping around her neck, the head right under her chin.

"Wow...talk about a major upgrade," said Lily.

"I finally signed a familiar contract and unlocked a few powers that I was finally ready for. Besides, this look suits the Time Sorceress," she grinned.

Seeing their jaws drop, Adhara went on.

"I am one of the very rare people who can freely manipulate time. Up till now my powers were restricted to stopping time and going into the past, but now that I've had an upgrade I can finally return to the future."

Since they were going to be present to one of the rarest of sights, she decided to make it a little flashy just for them. The flames that enveloped her were purely for show.

The time turner on her staff began to spin wildly as the red sand began to flow upwards. When it began to glow, Adhara bid them all a farewell.

In her place was an unusual magical construct known only as a simulacra so no one would suspect anything was wrong.

It could turn into any age she needed it to be.

* * *

_Eighteen months later... _

Narcissa looked nervous...and annoyed. She could barely tolerate Lucius on a _good_ day. When he was being a noble asshole, she usually had to restrain herself from laying him flat.

Fortunately, Walpurga had been more than understanding to her plight, and had done something to ease her fury. She had told Narcissa she could have anything she wanted for her wedding, since it was one of the rare things the men couldn't take from her.

So she decided to make the best of a crappy situation by planning a wedding to speak of for years to come. The only thing that could make it perfect was...

"Yo."

She jumped. Adhara was right behind, her grinning like she used to.

"You came!"

"Of course I did! Like I would leave you at the hands of that brute on your wedding. I already went to Lily and James' wedding a few months ago."

Adhara had kept her word. She would reappear for their weddings, if nothing else. Which meant that her maid of honor had finally shown up!

Bella, when she heard of Adhara reappearing again, squealed and tackled her in a hug.

"Hey Bella."

"You're back!"

Adhara was amused. Bella always acted like a six year old girl around Adhara. It was the only time she could be herself.

Adhara helped pinned Narcissa's long hair up in a way that everyone approved. It didn't take long for Adhara to be dressed up in the gowns that her friend had picked. She was right by the girl's side as she was married to Lucius Malfoy.

And stayed long enough for the reception.

The next time Adhara reappeared in England was for Bella's wedding. Once again, after the reception she vanished.

The last time she appeared was for Molly. Unlike the Black family, Molly's mother and father had allowed her to marry for love. The fact that Arthur Weasly happened to be a pure-blood from an influential Light family was coincidence.

Much to the shock of her more conventional pure-blood relatives, Molly had not only invited Lily and James, she had also brought in all the others. Narcissa and Bella (without their husbands thankfully) had shown up on Molly side as her maids. Lily was the maid of honor, to Adhara's relief.

To the amusement of the crowd, Adhara happened to be the one who caught the bouquet. Once the reception was over, she vanished before any of the boys could think to approach her.

_Present day..._

Adhara landed with a thump on the ground outside Ichigo's house. Her magical reserves were pretty drained from all the side stops she had taken.

On the plus side, she had kept her promise to her friends.

Ichigo, when he saw her, became relieved.

"What happened to you? Tatsuki went ballistic for two days!"

"A phoenix kidnapped me while I was on patrol. My particular brand of kido didn't react well to that, and I ended up in the past."

"You don't look any older."

"I had to unlock bankai just to get back. One of the side effects of returning to the point where I left was that I lost the years I had gained when I left. Memories I kept, but the physical years were taken in exchange."

Ichigo nodded. He didn't understand the normal magic, since he could barely get his kido to work without blowing up.

Adhara went straight back to her normal routine, with one exception.

She kept an eye out for the flaming chicken's return.


	12. Chapter 12

Orihime seemed to be the only person who accepted her disappearance into the past. Everyone else simply couldn't believe that she had returned from thirty years into her past, even though her artifact allowed her to go back an entire week to relive it as her other side.

It was the only reason she was allowed to keep her time turner for so long. By reliving the week over as her other half, she avoiding creating a paradox.

* * *

A week upon returning, she informed the Japanese Ministry that the time turner they had given her had been permanently integrated into her staff, and any chance of removing it would be far more trouble than it was worth, because the thing would likely never work the same again.

When they found out what her permanent partner was, they accepted that and moved on.

Right now she was Tatsuki, the girl found abandoned on the doorstep in Surrey. She had just had her sixteenth birthday and was crashing at Orihime's place for the night.

She realized in the past that she rather liked girl's night in. even without the alcohol to spice things up. So they sat, just talking about nothing. Orihime had some new concoctions that Tatsuki would only try with the hospital on speed dial.

Orihime wasn't offended. The fact that the girl was willing to even _try_ her food at all was a miracle.

So it was of great surprise to the girl when a ball of flame appeared in her living room.

Tatsuki took one look at it, and put down a note she had prepared in advance.

"_Ichigo, the phoenix I mentioned before is back, and if you are reading this had actually succeeded in grabbing me. If a situation comes up where you need my help, go to England or Scotland if it's past September. If worst comes to worse, have Uryu track my spiritual signature in Europe. They don't have anything to block _THAT_ from being noticed. I checked._

_Tatsuki/Adhara."_

Orihime didn't want her best friend to be grabbed. So she had a firm hold on Tatsuki's arm, to the girl's surprise.

And woke up in a rather dingy room that only Tatsuki recognized. It had taken a turn for the worse since she left. Then again, it had been thirty years.

"I despise that damn chicken," growled Tatsuki.

Orihime took one look at the heads on the wall and whimpered.

"Relax, they're only there for show. Keeps the Ministry from asking too many questions about the occupants," Tatsuki assured her.

"How do you know?"

"Because I lived her for a full summer..." she started. Someone outside tripped, and set off a portrait. It took three seconds for Tatsuki to identify the voice.

She went outside the room, Orihime following without question.

"FOR BUDDHA'S SAKE, WALPURGA, TONE IT DOWN!"she shouted.

Walpurga Black abruptly shut up upon realizing _who_ had yelled at her. She looked at her with amazement and amusement.

"_You don't really expect me to accept that...MAN...even entering my house?"_ she retorted.

"Oh trust me, the leader with that damn over grown parakeet is going to be in some serious pain very, very soon," Tatsuki assured her.

That was enough for the former Lady of the Black family to shut up.

Tatsuki turned to see a stunned Sirius Black staring at her in disbelief.

"Adhara?"

Tatsuki smirked.

"Hello brother. Or should I call you godfather?" she grinned.

Sirius did the only thing he could think of. He fainted.

She poked him, then grinned at Orihime.

_"So nice to know I'm loved,"_ she told the girl in Japanese.

Then she cast a translation charm on her friend.

"Right. So what do I need to catch up on, since I jumped from thirty years in the past?" she asked, clapping her hands.

Walpurga cheered her on as Dumbledore made his way through the tiny hall. Fawkes was still on his shoulder.

His eyes weren't twinkling, which meant that he clearly hadn't realized that Adhara Potter-Black was actually his girl-who-lived.

So it was with great shock to all that _didn't_ know the girl back in the school days that Tatsuki promptly kicked the headmaster in the balls, then sucker punched him in the gut and gave him a black eye, in that order.

"That...is for kidnapping me with that stupid flaming chicken of yours."

She saw past the downed wizard, saw her simulacra and snapped her fingers once. It fell apart like water to the shock of the girl beside her.

Only Snape had the presence of mind to lead everyone into the kitchen. Once there, Tatsuki was assaulted with questions, suspicious looks and admiration.

Orihime stayed right behind her friend, trying to keep everything straight. The translation charm was barely keeping up.

Finally, she held up a single hand and silence reigned.

"Right. First questions. Then Molly can catch me up on what I've missed for thirty years."

"Who are you?" demanded Alastor Moody. Tatsuki had heard of him.

"Right now my body is that of Tatsuki Arisawa. But thirty years ago, when that flaming chicken first attempted to grab me I was Adhara Midnight Potter-Black."

"Where were you?" asked Remus.

"I was in Japan for sixteen years. I left a simulacra here to keep that old bastard off my ass. The thing which just dissolved into water," she said, grinning.

"Why did you attack the headmaster?" asked a girl with bushy hair.

"Because I don't take kindly to being kidnapped. I take it Walpurga has been shrieking at you every time the curtains were removed?"

They all winced. She was the first to shut the portrait up.

"She hates Dumbledore. That's why she went off. Since I shared a similar dislike to the old geezer, she liked me. Common enemy and all."

"Who is that girl hovering behind you?" asked Snape.

Her grinned widened to evil proportions.

"Remember that concoction I had you test when I thought James had hexed my hair?"

Snape's eyes visibly widened in horror.

"This is the girl you got _that _from?"

Tatsuki nodded. Orihime finally piped up.

"My name is Inoue Orihime. Nice to meet you!"

Tatsuki found Molly watching them with some amusement. She remembered Adhara Potter fondly.

"Orihime, meet Molly Weasly, formerly Molly Prewitt. Do me a favor and help her in the kitchen?"

Orihime caught the double request. Tatsuki wanted to make sure her best friend at least knew how to cook _normal_ food.

She gave the girl an amused look.

"I know how to cook the normal way just fine. But I got tired of all the usual flavors and haven't gone back to it since."

Tatsuki stared at her.

"You...can cook a normal dinner and not mix some weird ingredient?"

Orihime nodded.

"That I would have to see. But you could still use some tips," admitted Tatsuki.

Then she turned to her amused audience.

"Right, so fill me in on how the world turned for thirty years so I don't have to ask Kyoko to look. She hates looking at the past."

Apparently a lot _had_ happened in thirty years.

Everyone (except Bella for some reason) had at least one child. And just like Narcissa had wanted, her firstborn son was named Draco.

Though if Hermione (the girl who had definitely been surprised to find out her best friend had been a construct) was to be believed, Narcissa had done a better job raising her son than Lucius' own mother had.

She had done the one thing she could to insure her son at least gave women a healthy dose of respect, no matter what his father tried to brainwash him with. She had made him very, very terrified of angering females.

Though how she had accomplished that made Tatsuki laugh her ass off. Apparently Draco had been present the few times Narcissa had given in to temptation and had beaten the crap out of his father. After that was seen by the impressionable four year old, he learned very quickly not to mess with girls. Particularly anyone in the Black family.

Bella was in Azkaban, and it wasn't entirely _her_ fault. Tatsuki knew full well that the girl's mental state was barely at that of a six year old. Apparently the man she had to marry had gotten to her on one of her bad days and turned her into a Death Eater.

She was even blamed for torturing Alice and Frank Longbottom to the point they couldn't even remember their own names.

Which she knew was not true. Alice had been one of the rare people who had figured out the truth about Bella's condition and had actually been nice to her. Bella would never harm those who were genuinely nice to her.

Recently the poor girl had been freed from Azkaban, though after looking at Sirius (who had been falsely accused of killing the Potters) she knew that her mental state was questionable now.

"Right. So I was taken from Japan so I could end this stupid war once and for all. But I have a few demands before I help you."

They looked at her, and realized she was being quite serious.

"One: any information or help from Albus Dumbledore must be double checked before accepted. That man is willing to ruin lives just so he will come out ahead. Two: I better not hear any complaints about my contacts or allies when I bring them here. Three: you had all better be civil to the people I rescue, or there will be pain coming your way, courtesy of my fist."

Everyone who had been in school with her had expected as much.

"Oh, and we had better keep Molly far from the liquor cabinet. She tends to sing some really dirty drinking songs when properly motivated..." said Tatsuki, fully enjoying the horrified look on Molly's face.

"That was one time, and you were the one who brought that vodka into the mix!" she retorted, embarrassed.

She looked horrified at the very amused looks her children were giving her. Particularly the twins. Tatsuki laughed.

Most of the house was emptied by supper. They had all come to see the real girl-who-lived, since Dumbledore had realized last year the person he thought was his pawn was a very clever magical construct.

Finding out that his real Gryffindor Golden Girl was the same person who had managed to keep the Potter and Black accounts far from his reach had come as a very nasty shock.

* * *

Tatsuki realized with annoyance she would have to become Adhara Potter here. No one knew her reputation back home as Tatsuki.

But her infamy as the illusive Time Sorceress was well known in Europe. She was very, very amused at the supposed sightings that the Daily Prophet reported of her.

And the so called autobiography that Hermione mentioned off hand made her laugh so hard that she had trouble breathing.

Adhara Potter-Black was by far _more_ famous than her so called birth name Adhara Midnight Potter, girl-who-lived.

Which amused her to no end. About the only thing the books got right (seemed the persona she had cultivated in the past was a more interesting topic than the girl who supposedly killed the Dark Lord the first time) was her outfit and familiar.

Apparently Narcissa had made more than enough money selling her before and after photos complete with costume. Adhara had given it to her as a wedding present. Plus there was a complete picture of Kyoko, in full dragon form.

Which was the only reason she didn't burn the books outright.

Orihime took one look at the photos of her sorceress costume, and shook her head.

"You are way too addicted to _Sailor Moon_."

"You have to admit, at least my costume has more style than the one in the show."

Tatsuki had managed to get Orihime into the show. Nothing more would be said on the matter, as far as Orihime was concerned.

"So when are they taking us to this hospital?" asked Orihime.

Orihime, when she learned of the two almost comatose people that had befriended Tatsuki, had offered to see if she could heal them with her fairies.

She had never attempted to heal a mental condition before. It would be good practice for Bella.

(She had already tried to do that for Remus, but they found that by now his wolf was so firmly tied to his magic that trying to remove it would turn him into a squib at least. So they shifted it to his animagus form instead.)

Of course even her experiences didn't prepare her for the infamous Weasly twins.

* * *

Fred and George Weasly were every bit like the Marauders with one key difference. They had never pranked anyone who didn't at least deserve it.

Which was why Adhara immediately adored them, to Sirius' annoyance.

"Why is it that within a week of meeting our gorgeous selves you threaten to give us black eyes and stick our heads in the second floor girl's urinal, but you actually laugh at the pranks of the Weasly twins?" complained Sirius.

Adhara laughed evilly.

"Because at least _they_ have yet to act like complete jerks. You guys used to prank people who looked at you wrong, and always bullied the Slytherins. Why else did you think Severus hated you so much?"

To the collective shock of the younger generation, the girl-who-lived and the spawn of James Potter not only got along with the ornery potionsmaster (which had made her vocalize her disbelief he even accepted the job when she knew he hated children) but she actually got him to smile like a normal person.

Though she definitely shocked quite a few people when she admitted to knowing about his crush on her. Particularly Snape himself.

"Right. So how close can you get to Bella?"

Snape knew she would never allow one of her close friends to remain stuck in her own personal hell. Particularly when she didn't realize what she was doing at the time.

"I can get close enough to speak to her. It wouldn't be that hard...all I would have to do is tell the Dark Lord that I had found a potion to restore even a semblance of sanity to her, and she would have to come with me."

"Perfect. Because once I free all the idiots who had been forced into his control, I'm going after him with a vengeance."

"He looks like a poorly transfigured snake."

"So he won't have a broken nose?"

"Unfortunately no."

"Damn."

* * *

Much to the shock of the Order of the Flaming Chicken (the twins heard that comment and ran with it) Orihime wasn't a mundane or a squib.

She was an untrained witch. And a powerful one, particularly after being around Adhara when she still had the time turner.

Adhara looked around with interest as they went through St. Mungo's hospital.

People took one look at her and stared. It didn't take long for the whispers to start. She would look at those staring and grin with amusement.

The Time Sorceress had arrived, and all hell would break loose if she was crossed.

Once she reached the ward where the more permanent cases were held, she found herself facing a surprise.

Alice's son, Neville, and Frank's mother Augusta.

"We heard that you were coming to visit. And that you might have something to heal them," said Augusta calmly. Adhara gave her the nod of equals.

Augusta knew of Adhara Potter-Black, and that the girl (who really did travel through time) was her equal in rank. So she approved heartily of the respect Adhara had given her.

"Where are they?" asked Adhara.

Augusta lead them to Alice and Frank. They looked horrible. While the physical damage had long since healed over, the damage done to their psyche was irreparable. At least, under normal circumstances.

Orihime nodded to her friend and activated her power.

The two fairies flew over to both of them, and formed a perfect shield. It was quickly apparent that her power was working. The fairies were stronger than anyone had realized.

The damage caused by the Cruciatus curse was being undone, unable to withstand Orihime's ability to reject within her shield. Once they were brought back to sanity, the shield vanished back into her hair pins.

"Mother...what...?" asked Frank, looking around.

Neville started crying with relief, and hugged both of his parents tightly, to their shock.

Augusta turned to Adhara, and she didn't have to say anything. There really wasn't words to describe that moment.

Once the tears and relief was finally out of the way, Adhara looked at Alice and asked "Did Bella really join in on the attack?"

Alice shook her head.

"When it happened, she kept holding her wrist and chanting all the stars in the constellation of Canis Major. It took me some time to realize she was trying to remain sane. It was her husband and his brother who actually turned the curse on us."

"Good. Then that bracelet was good for something. The Lestrange boys aren't going to like what I plan to do to them for hurting Bella."


	13. Chapter 13

It took all of two weeks before Ichigo turned up on their doorstep. With Zaraki, Byakuya and a few others. All of them staring at the house, even though it was supposedly invisible to the mundane.

You would have a hell of a time hiding _anything_ from the dead.

She let them all in, trying to hide her grin. The wizards had never encountered someone like her before, when she crashed into the Black Lake.

So having people with roughly the same mindset as her would come as a very rude awakening. Especially when they met her captain, who was very firmly leaning to a scorched earth policy.

It was Byakuya who spoke first.

"Care to explain why the hell you are in the territory of Avalon?"

She blinked.

"I wasn't aware there _was_ a soul society in Europe."

He gave her a look.

"Right... Basically I was dragged here by the supposed leader of the 'good' guys because of the fact I was born here and survived an attack by the 'bad' guys. Because they believe I survived an instant kill kido, they hail me as their Savior and expect me to kill the one who killed my birth parents."

Ichigo nodded. It wasn't a big secret that Tatsuki/Adhara was adopted when she was really young. Though her grin was very worrying.

"The only problem was that his first attempt to kidnap me backfired spectacularly because of the artifact I used to live my double life in peace. The phoenix' powers combined with my time turner sent me thirty years in the past. I had to unlock my bankai just to get home."

They took it all in stride. She had been exposed to Ichigo's uncontrolled spiritual powers for years. Unleashing her bankai didn't really shock them that much. And she had never kept the fact that she wasn't born in Japan a secret, particularly when the fact she had been living in the soul society _and _the world of the living for years.

"While I was in the past, I ended up meeting my birth parents and forging alliances without realizing it. The old man who attempted to kidnap me had no idea who I was, only that I was in his way. Two weeks ago, I allowed him to bring me to England...though Orihime grabbed me at the last second."

She looked at them all. Each person who had come looking for her was her friend and comrade in some way. Ichigo, Byakuya, Zaraki, Yachiru, Yumechika, Ikkaku, Toshiro and Matsumoto.

"I intend to end this nonsense here once and for all, and then go home. Maybe then the old coot will leave me alone."

Snape, who had been beside her the whole time, looked highly amused.

"You would still have to fight off the admirers. You've gained a rather interesting reputation while you were away."

Ichigo looked at her amused.

"What sort of reputation? Is it anything like your Dragon Fist one?"

"Her nickname is Adhara of the Dragon Flame. And anyone who even remotely supports the Dark Lord fears her. She once took out one of his hideouts and beat the living hell out of the lackeys in there with only her staff and a lot of hitting. Rumor has it she sent the Dark Lord himself flying into the lake," he informed them, trying not to laugh.

"My summer had been boring, then the Dark moron was dumb enough to kidnap me. So I retaliated with extreme prejudice," she grinned.

Zaraki laughed. Byakuya shook his head.

"And the female soul reapers used to _wonder_ why you went straight into the Eleventh division upon graduating..." snorted Toshiro.

"That bit about me sending him into the lake is actually true though. I had no idea it was the so called Dark Lord at the time."

"Only you, Adhara, only you..." Snape shook his head.

"Wait, so your name really _is_ Adhara?" asked Ikkaku.

"Adhara Midnight Potter-Black."

* * *

Once it was established that only a few of them would remain as her back up team (no one with a captain's rank or equal, lest Avalon figured out what was going on) the rest went home to report.

It turned out that meant most of her friends had to go. Toshiro, knowing full well Matsumoto would just get drunk anyway and would be useless for the next month, decided to loan her out to Adhara.

In exchange he borrowed Hinamori from squad five to fill out more paperwork. Adhara had gone up to the girl once she had woken up, and literally slapped sense into her.

How, no one had figured out, but they were glad that she did.

Which meant Ikkaku, Yumechika, Rangiku and surprisingly enough Yachiru had stayed behind.

All it had taken to keep Yachiru was the promise of new candy, and she had jumped onto Adhara's shoulder.

Adhara normally would have gone back to the school pretending to be a transfer. But with all those books with her picture on it, she had an even better, much more evil idea.

She would become the DADA teacher for a year. But first, she had to take care of a little matter at the Ministry and set the ball rolling.

* * *

Adhara waltzed into the Ministry, following Arthur Weasly. She rather approved of him, despite being a pure-blood.

Since most of the people were familiar with her construct, she pretended to be Adhara Potter, girl-who-lived.

She couldn't wait to shock the hell out of everyone.

Upon learning that the 'trial' for underage magic had been moved, she went straight to the courtroom. And smirked.

Augusta Longbottom had long since been informed of the fact that Adhara could travel through time, which was why she wasn't shocked in the least that the supposed _cousin_ of James Potter was actually his daughter.

Quite a few people had noted the odd resemblance to the girl-who-lived and the infamous Time Sorceress.

No one had ever actually made the connection though.

She waited until Fudge got to the point of the trial, then snorted so loudly he shot her an annoyed look.

"You have got to be joking. I leave a construct to take my place in England and you all think it's okay to walk all over it?" she said loudly.

At the word construct, Augusta tried to hide a smirk. Adhara had told her _exactly_ what she planned to do for the so called trial. Frankly the Longbottom Matriarch couldn't wait to see the show.

Adhara looked at all of them, her amusement clear on her face. Then she let the illusion drop.

"It seems...that I have a great many things to clear up here," she said clearly.

It didn't take long for them to recognize her.

She looked right at Fudge.

"Are you aware, Minister, that the person you assumed was Adhara Potter, girl-who-lived was in fact a construct I left behind to keep the Headmaster happy?"

He flinched. If that was true... he was in so much trouble. It was only the fact that the infamous Time Sorceress had shown up mere hours after the Dark Lord had been taken out that had prevented Dumbledore from seizing the vaults under the guise of the girl-who-lived's magical guardian.

Many had thought it very suspicious that her Aunt, whom many believed she had been named after, had not shown up to contest the fact that the girl-who-lived had been placed with her muggle relatives.

"The fact of the matter is, Minister, Lords and Ladies, I am not James Potter's cousin. I am the real Adhara Potter, also known as the girl-who-lived. If you don't believe me, I assure you the goblins can give you a blood test."

Fudge was trying not to shake in fear. Adhara Potter-Black was one of the strongest witches in the world, and she held no love for either the Ministry _or_ Dumbledore.

It turned out that Griphook was there on Gringotts business. He confirmed her story, to the shock of the Wizengamot.

Which meant that the entire trial ended up becoming void.

Of course there was the incident _after_ the trial which was talked about for months.

* * *

Adhara was enjoying her little joke, when she saw him.

Lucius bloody Malfoy...bribing the Minister. Her grin widened to match one her captain would normally have upon finding someone new to fight.

She walked right up to him, waited till he recognized her face, then clocked him so hard that he was having trouble staunching the blood coming from his nose.

It took her a few moments to register the cheering and general clapping.

She bowed to her appreciative audience, and went back to Grimmauld place with a smirk fully in place.

It turned out that Arthur owned a pensieve. Adhara gladly gave him the memory of hitting Lucius Malfoy hard enough to break his nose.

About an hour after returning, they got a surprise visitor.

Narcissa Malfoy ne Black. She looked around, saw Adhara and hugged her.

"Missed you too, Cissa," she grinned.

"I love what you did to him. I haven't heard him curse that much since he had to deal with my pregnancy cravings," she cackled.

"Congratulations on that, by the way."

"Next time I'll bring Draco. He'll be safer with you than he is at home. The Dark Lord decided to take over our house as his own, the ass."

"Want me to...evict...him?" asked Adhara with a grin.

"Not at the moment."

At that moment, Snape walked in with a bound and gagged Bellatrix Lestrange.

She was spitting nails, most likely because she had just seen Sirius who had been making faces at her.

Everyone was giving them a wide berth, for obvious reasons.

Adhara grinned at Bella, who paused long enough in her swearing fit to actually look at who was before her.

"Miss me, Bella?"

It took the insane woman a good five minutes to calm down long enough for them to release the ropes. Even then, they had their wands close at hand to bind her again.

Orihime walked in, and prepared to use her fairies to heal the Dark Mark from Bella. She hadn't volunteered to become a Death Eater after all.

Orihime looked up from her work, and looked at her friend.

"I think whoever did this to her has been using that curse that hurt the Longbottom's. She has a similar feel to them."

Snape didn't looked surprised.

"The Dark Lord favors that curse to keep his people in line. Originally she didn't really do anything, then he kept using it on her to get her to cooperate. It was after her mind finally snapped that they shipped her to Azkaban."

"Right. Let me try something then. Bella, do you remember who I am?"

"The one who killed the Dark Lord?" she said hopefully.

"No, you know who I am. Can you try to remember for me?"

Bellatrix seemed to be thinking. Her eyes went from Adhara to her bracelet, which was the only thing that the Ministry _hadn't_ confiscated when they had captured her.

Something seemed to click in her insane mind.

"Adhara?"

She grinned.

"Good girl. Now who is Adhara to you?"

"Friend... Protector..."

While she kept Bellatrix focused on her, remembering the times Adhara had kept her sane, Orihime went to work on the damage. It was pretty severe, and took her a good twenty minutes.

When she was done, Bellatrix Lestrange was quite a bit more sane than she had been in years. Even though her mental state was still roughly that of an eight year old.

With her Dark Mark gone, and her sanity restored, Bella refused to leave the house. So Adhara came up with the perfect cover story to keep people from asking questions.

Snape would tell the Dark Lord the potion failed spectacularly, and that her sanity had been cast to the four winds. Which meant she was essentially dead to everyone. It would explain away the reason why no one would see her again.

In order to keep Bella from losing her mind again, Adhara did something to keep her occupied. She introduced the woman to Yachiru, who hit it off with the formerly insane woman.

Thought after that they had to guard anything with sugar in it from the two. Yachiru had an unholy tendency to sniff sugary sweets out, to the horror of one Ronald Weasly.

* * *

Adhara had an unholy gleam in her eyes as she warned Narcissa of what she was about unleash in her house. Narcissa then took her son out shopping for the Hogwarts year as a treat. Lucius and the other Death Eaters were busy in a meeting. Snape was still keeping his cover as the potionsmaster.

Which was why no one Adhara cared about was actually around to face the wrath of the Pink Demon of Squad Eleven.

Adhara had swore to Unohana that she would never feed Yachiru that many sweets again. At least not within the confines of the Seireitei. It was with no amount of unholy glee that she gave Yachiru several sweet candies, particularly chocolate...and then unleashed her on the Malfoy Manor.

She then transformed into her new sorceress costume, and waited patiently for the fireworks to start.

It took seconds before the screaming started. She walked in, and leaned on the doorway as a pink blur crashed into anything and everything in her path. Death Eaters lay on the ground, crying or moaning.

Yachiru was a force of nature when she was hyper and had been put into a sugar high. Even Kenpachi never got in her way when she had too much sugar.

Then someone realized _she_ was there, and the real screaming started.

Though that might have been because she lit the man on fire at that moment.

She cackled insanely as she proceeded to punch, kick and set fire to anyone who even _looked_ like a Death Eater. Yachiru added her own brand of destruction by stealing everyone's wands.

Finally, Voldemort appeared. He aimed a killing curse, causing the pink menace to crash into the wall. She got up, and cussed the man out.

Everyone was staring in disbelief at the fact the hideout had just been trashed by a little girl with pink hair.

Yachiru jumped onto Adhara's shoulder like a parrot, her evil smile still on her face.

"Hello weakling. Ready to crash into another lake? I promise to make the pain even worse..." she said sweetly.

Voldemort had long since heard about the fact that the woman he wanted as his Dark Lady was in fact the same brat who had killed him off the first time. And that the brat who's blood he had taken had been nothing more than a construct.

Probably why the ritual hadn't worked like it should have.

He snarled, and cast the killing curse at her. To his annoyance, she shrugged it right off.

"You can't kill someone who's already dead, silly!" chirped Yachiru. She was practically vibrating on Adhara's shoulder.

He looked at Adhara and Yachiru. They looked very solid from where he stood.

Adhara looked right at him, gave him an infuriating smirk, and then quoted one of her favorite movies.

"Death...is only the beginning."

**(Cyber props to anyone who remembers that line. Awesome movie!)**

She then punched him so hard he went crashing through two walls, three trees and landed in a mud puddle. And the lightning sensation from her skin was still there.

"I love chaos, don't you Yachiru?"

"Yup, yup, yup!" chirped the girl.

They vanished from the mansion, after waving to Narcissa who grinned evilly.

Draco took one look at the mess the front hall was in, and asked his mother to drop him off with his Uncle Severus. He wasn't going to stick around to face whoever had almost annihilated the Malfoy Family home. Or deal with the Dark Lord's anger from the result.

* * *

"So you're Draco Malfoy. You look like a clone of your idiot father," said Adhara amused.

Draco looked like a rabbit pinned by a wolf. He immediately recognized the pink menace that was sleeping on the couch and the girl who had waved to his mother before they went inside the house.

"Please don't kill me... I haven't done anything to warrant that much pain," he whimpered.

Ikkaku shot Adhara an amused look.

"Does this have anything to do with why the lieutenant looks like she just had a sugar high?" he asked.

"I just destroyed their main hideout of the week. And sent this so called Dark Lord flying. And his mother learned quite a bit about how to handle her husband from me."

"In other words you showed her your method of keeping men in line," snorted Yumechika.

"Maybe..." she grinned, not looking at them.

Ikkaku snorted, and walked up to the terrified Draco Malfoy.

"Relax kid. She doesn't beat up everyone on sight. You would have to do something to annoy her first."

Draco looked at him in shock.

"And that would be?"

"A large list of things too long to go over," said Yumechika.

"And that pink creature on the couch?" he asked.

The two shared a look and laughed.

"The lieutenant is only dangerous when there is a lot of sugar involved. If you're lucky she'll give you a random nickname and leave you alone...mostly," said Yumechika.

Draco had been raised with a healthy respect (read FEAR) of females since he was four. His mother had told him once that she learned all of her pain inducing moves from an old school friend named Adhara Potter-Black.

After talking to his Uncle he had a good idea what the woman in question was like. Upon meeting Adhara Potter, the girl-who-lived, he suspected she was in fact the same Adhara Potter who used to lay James Potter flat on the floor for bullying Slytherins.

It wasn't until after the first year had ended that he knew she was a fake, simply there to take the girl-who-lived's place. It hadn't come as any surprise that the Adhara Potter who his mother adored was in fact the girl-who-lived, trapped in the past for two whole years.


	14. Chapter 14

Draco walked into the Black family library, blinked, then left the room and walked back in again.

He was not seeing things. His aunt Bellatrix was sitting on the floor with the pink haired menace with crayons and a muggle coloring book. And looking far more sane than he had ever seen.

He blinked again, and then said tentatively...

"Aunt Bella?"

"Draco!" she said cheerfully.

Right, time to wake up.

He was about to back away when he bumped into something. He didn't dare turn around, in case it was what he thought it was.

"Having fun Bella!"

Bella nodded with a silly grin. She was actually acting...sane?

Draco finally managed to escape the library, still in shock. Adhara walked up to him amused.

"Bellatrix...her mind hasn't really caught up to her apparent age. I doubt it ever will."

"She's...sane?" he asked, not really believing it.

"Her mental age used to be around six. Right now she's at the level of a very smart eight year old...with a large arsenal of hexes. She seemed to really like you."

"Mother always told me to accept the fact Aunt Bella was more childish than others, and move on. The longer she was in the Death Eater ranks, the worse she got until the point where I wasn't allowed around her anymore. She's acting more sane than I am used to," he admitted.

Adhara nodded.

"Blood is blood, no matter how much we try to deny it. If it helps, treat her as a first year fresh out of school. One who is still trying to learn how to cope with having a magic wand."

Draco nodded. It was sound advice.

* * *

Adhara was both amused and annoyed. Draco and Ron just refused to get along. So, in a move only those who knew her would have seen coming (read Ikkaku, Yumechika and Molly) she locked them in a closet for four hours. She told them one thing.

"Either you two come out acting civil to each other, or you won't come out until the train is about to leave."

And then hit it with a heavy duty silencer.

Once the two agreed to disagree, she let them out. She pretended not to notice Hermione on the sidelines laughing her ass off on the floor.

The twins had applauded at her trick.

* * *

Adhara ignored the rush to the train. She was flooing straight to the school.

Dumbledore had reluctantly accepted her proposal to be the DADA for the year. It was either that or hire the toad the Ministry had planned to put in there.

She wasn't going alone either. Ikkaku and Rangiku were going to be her teaching aides while Yumechika kept them informed during Order meetings.

Yachiru was going to be posing as a transfer. Wand and all.

(Orihime had gone back home with Ichigo, having done all she could. If needed, Adhara would call her.)

"I've been meaning to ask...what prompted that attack on the Malfoy Mansion?" asked Rangiku.

"Narcissa overheard that Voldemort was going to give her son the Dark Mark at the end of the year. Her husband was going to force their son into joining the ranks, and she was so mad she asked me to take out the hideout for payback."

"And the fact that she hated her husband's family in general was..." asked Molly, who had overheard.

"Bonus."

Molly shook her head. No matter what timeline, Adhara was the same.

"Want me to keep those twins of yours in line until we reach the train?"

"Please... I am up to my wit's end with the both of them."

Adhara shook her head, amused.

"Molly, the only thing you can do is ask them to tone it down and stay out of the way. Just thank your lucky stars that they didn't turn out like Sirius and James."

"OY!"

Adhara leveled a look at him.

"Face it dog breath, you and James were complete pricks until I straightened the two of you out," said Adhara flatly.

"I hate to tell you this Sirius, but she is right," said Remus from behind the man.

Sirius whined "That's right, it's pick on the convict day..."

Adhara snorted.

Bellatrix wanted to join them, but Adhara had another idea. She brought out a book that she had found while shopping, and soon the woman was sitting on the couch quietly while reading.

Hermione gave Adhara a look of shock.

"What book could do that to her?"

"_Beauty Tips for the Dark Witch_. Only comes on sale once every decade or so."

Hermione cast the book a speculative look.

"Where can I get a copy?" she asked.

Adhara laughed, and loaned her the copy she had bought for herself.

* * *

Ikkaku and Rangiku rode the train for two reasons.

One was to keep Yachiru in line. The other was to make sure the Dark Moron didn't attack the train.

They didn't count on her eating all of Ron's snacks, and then proceeding to annoy the soon to be Death Eaters in the forward cars.

Some of the boys already had the mark...and Yachiru somehow managed to hone in on those particular students.

"Right...so where did Adhara say that candy store was?" asked Ikkaku, ignoring the screams of horror.

"Roughly a short run to the village outside the castle. Is there anyway to put a dog collar and leash her to the castle?" asked Rangiku hopefully.

Ikkaku snorted.

"Don't you think we tried that already? She just chews through the leash in less than an hour then wreaks holy hell on everyone in revenge. It's easier hiding the candy and sake stashes," said Ikkaku.

"She listens to Adhara..." said Rangiku.

"Only because Adhara had enough common sense to feed her plenty of sugar and then drops her right in the middle of the Menos Forest at least once a month. I had never seen a Menos run that fast until I watched Yachiru entering that forest..."

Rangiku shuddered. This was going to be unpleasant...

* * *

Adhara reintroduced herself to the teachers, most of which were in shock that she was the same girl from thirty years ago. Most of that cleared up when she mentioned that her time turner malfunctioned.

She had promised Snape not to prank the welcoming feast...particularly after the Sorting Hat had looked in her head and started screaming bloody murder.

The poor thing refused to say what he had seen.

She thoroughly enjoyed the looks of shock and horror that her new students were giving her. Many had recognized her from the Daily Prophet or from tales their parents told them.

Most of the Slytherin house took one look at her and tried to make themselves as small as possible. Clearly they had heard most of her unpleasant tales.

Some were still watching in shock as Snape talked to her with a real grin on his face. One that didn't look fake in the least.

The sorting went on as usual, aside from the rather morbid song the hat had come up with. Of course everyone was staring at Yachiru when seconds upon the hat being placed on her head, it started howling in horror.

Adhara couldn't help her reaction...she nearly bust a gut cackling.

The hat screamed Slytherin and started whimpering.

Yachiru cheerfully went up next to Draco and sat down. The boy looked around him in horror, as the other Slytherins quickly scooted far, far away from him.

When Adhara finally came under control, Dumbledore gave his welcome speech and everyone finally ate their dinner.

Rangiku and Ikkaku were sound asleep in their beds immediately upon reaching the castle.

* * *

Draco was facing a unique problem in his own house. And her name was Yachiru Kusagishi.

Yachiru was a young, bubbly little girl with naturally pink hair. She had no issue butting in to ask odd questions, and seemed to instantly dislike anyone who Draco knew for a fact already had the Dark Mark or was about to receive one.

Those people learned very quickly to avoid her, because she had an unholy tendency to bite heads.

The only consolation was that Snape could control her to a point by threatening to tell the new DADA Adhara Potter-Black.

Yachiru would pout, and cease whatever had gotten her in trouble.

At least, until Crabbe accidentally left his stash of sweets unguarded.

One week into the term, Draco found the common room in a familiar state of destruction. He recognized it from the scene he had walked in after Adhara had hit the Dark Lord's hideout (I/E his house).

He found a very hyper Yachiru sitting on Crabbe and Goyle, looking pleased with herself. And numerous candy wrappers on the floor.

Adhara had walked in, picked up Yachiru, and promptly kept her inside her office for the rest of the week. Further investigation revealed that Crabbe's entire stash of candy and sweets had been devoured by the Pink Demon.

After that everyone kept a close watch over Yachiru's sugar levels.

* * *

Roger Davies believed he was god's gift to women, particularly after he landed the rather beautiful Fluer Delacour as his date to the ball during the Tri Wizard Tournament.

Too bad the girls didn't see it that way.

Upon seeing the new DADA teacher, he felt like it was his time to woo her. Especially since she was the strongest Sorceress currently in Europe.

Best of all, she wasn't some old woman or already married!

So it was with a swag in his step that he walked into the DADA classroom, and saw the new teacher, alone. His grin widened. It was as if the universe was backing him up on his quest to woo the new teacher.

Adhara sensed something she enjoyed greatly.

A pompous ass just begging to have him ego handed to him. And judging from his swagger it was quite a bit ego. She hid a grin.

She let him give his initial opening gambit, and hid an evil smirk.

"How about I call you up for a demonstration later?" she purred. This was too rich!

Her ploy worked, and he went to his seat, smug as a cat who had gotten the dog in trouble.

She noted the disgusted looks the girls sent him, and the amused looks of the boys.

"Right. My name is Professor Adhara. Or as I would like you all to know... _Your worst nightmare._"

She grinned at the surprised looks on their faces.

"This semester we are mostly going to focus on building up your muscle mass and learning hand to hand combat. I've noticed that you lot tend to rely a little too heavily on your wand work. And before you say anything, I know this is your NEWTs year, which is why I will be giving you homework to see how well you can find answers for yourselves. Now, since I am going to be giving you a..._demonstration_ of what I am going to teach you, I will have a volunteer come up to show how effective the moves are."

She looked at Davies, who had a premonition of pain coming his way. The girls noted the evil smirk their teacher had for him, and soon they were looking very happy about the new teacher.

"Well Mr. Davies, since you insisted on trying to get under my robe earlier, you have become our...victim...for today," she told him, enjoying the growing look of complete horror on his face.

He reluctantly got up, to avoid point deduction.

"Now the first move I am going to demonstrate is perfect for the girls, and possible boys if they can stomach it. This is considered below the belt, so only use it if the person you are talking to is a complete, total ass who believes that they are god's gift to us."

And then she kicked him lightly in the balls. He went down like a sack of bricks. The girls all cheered and the boys all winced.

"Any questions?"

Davies groaned.

* * *

It didn't take long for the Hogwarts Grapevine to spread the word about Adhara's class. The only ones who seemed to really enjoy it were the girls.

Mostly because she only demonstrated the not so painful moves on them, and used her special ones to take down those who's egos had gotten too big for others to tolerate them.

Though very few liked her teaching assistants.

In order to get them into shape, Adhara split them up into two groups. The girls got Rangiku, the boys got Ikkaku.

Needless to say the boys felt like they had gotten the short end of the stick, again.

Fortunately most people actually _liked_ Adhara's class, because she always made the lessons interesting. And she wasn't above swearing if she got pranked by the twins (who only did it because she kept having them watch Yachiru for an hour, while on a sugar high as detentions).

She also got on the students good side by somehow getting Snape to tone down his insults. Much to the shock of the other teachers, with her around the students were actually _learning_ in potions!

Things were settling in to be a fairly peaceful year at the school. Until November came around, when they all received a very nasty shock. And her name was...The Toad.

Dolores Umbridge was a nasty, spiteful woman who treated every student she came across as five year old children. She was the most unanimously hated person in the school, second only to Snape and Filch.

And much to the delight of the students, she made the mistake of getting on Adhara's bad side from day one.

* * *

_Flashback_

"Hem Hem!" she coughed.

Adhara went on describing the spell. Since the students were still trying to recover from their run around the castle, she let them off on new moves.

Umbridge did her fake cough again. This time she was louder.

Adhara paused, and gave her a look that promised unpleasant things would happen if she did that again.

"Pardon me, but what do you think you are doing?" she asked in her sickeningly sweet voice.

"I am trying to ignore a badly transfigured toad. Now as I was saying, the..."

"Are you aware of the new Ministry standards concerning Defense Against the Dark Arts?" she asked sweetly.

Oh, it was on now.

"Are you aware that I couldn't give a rat's arse about the damn Ministry, and that you are two seconds away from having my fist shoved down your throat?" she answered.

The children snickered. There was a reason why Adhara was so popular.

She was not to be dissuaded. She prepared to tell Adhara how many of the new rules she was breaking...only to have the girl in question grab her by her collar, actually drag her out into the hall and throw her like a bowling ball into the nearby empty classroom. She then proceeded to slam the door, and when she went to go back in, found it to be under a rather nasty warding spell.

Furious, she waited for it to open again...only to find that Adhara had sent the entire class out through the windows with brooms she had the house elves bring in.

After that, it was very clear that the two would be at each other's throats for the rest of the year.

_End Flashback_

* * *

Adhara had become the champion of the students, as each time a new Educational Decree had been announced, she would wait until Filch had put it up before she sent a blasting hex at it.

After the tenth new decree, she announced to the school at dinner that anyone found violating the new rules would be given ten points for each one broken.

Much to the anger of the Umbitch, the other teachers only...encouraged this new rule.

To add insult to injury, Adhara had given Filch and Snape a new weapon to keep the students in line. One that was so effective that students would start crying if they got caught.

And her name was Yachiru.

* * *

Yumechika couldn't believe what he was seeing. It was an adult version of the lieutenant, only instead of being totally loyal to the captain, Bellatrix Black (it was agreed she would drop her married name) was completely loyal to Adhara.

All she was missing was the pink hair and young body.

On the plus side, she didn't have some of Yachiru's more annoying traits. She at least behaved...mostly. And she didn't use her spells unless she had a good reason.

On the down side, she was a bit whiny. He was tempted to send her to Adhara, if it weren't for the fact that everyone believed she was clinically insane and psychotic.

After a particularly bad day of dealing with her, he sent Adhara a request.

"_Can you please do something about Bellatrix? She's driving us all up the wall!"_

Adhara arrived on the weekend, highly amused.

"I've been talking to Narcissa, and we've come up with the perfect solution. Since it isn't healthy for someone to spend so much time indoors (she shot Sirius an amused look) we are going to de-age her to match her mental state."

"Another Yachiru then?"

"Only with her consent of course."

Bella, when she heard that all she had to do to leave the house and join Adhara in the school was turn back into a little girl, was all for it.

No one would be looking for an eight year old named Bella Black.

The next morning, Yachiru found out her new playmate had come to Hogwarts, and they found a way to keep her quiet, to the relief of her housemates.


	15. Chapter 15

Umbridge was on the warpath. She was determined to get rid of Adhara Potter-Black, if it was the last thing she did!

Adhara not only didn't care about the Ministry, she insulted them on a regular basis! It made her impossible to control, even when she was threatened with having her teaching career ended!

(Umbridge: "You must stop these practices now! I'll have your license revoked and you removed from the school!"

Adhara: "You can try, toad woman, you can try. If your Minister is willing to deal with a piss off Sorceress who has no issue turning him into an Ostrich.")

Then there was the fact that Adhara was telling lies about He-who-must-not-be-named! Honestly, as if You-know-who were really back!

(Umbridge: "Lies! You-know-who is dead!"

Adhara: "If that idiot is dead, then it was some other moron disguised as him that I sent flying into the forest outside the Malfoy Manor. Get out of my class before I send _you_ into the Forbidden Forest.")

Something would have to be done about that girl, and soon.

* * *

_Educational Decree number 35: Only teachers above the age of twenty may be allowed to teach core subjects._

Adhara took one look at that post and started to cackle insanely. If that was how she wanted to play it, then she had a solution to shutting the hag up!

That day, Umbridge walked smugly into the DADA classroom, intending to kick out Adhara.

Only to find out that the girl has become the Teacher's Aide to the rather buxom orange haired woman who taught the girls how to warm up properly.

"Is there a problem here, Toad Bitch?" asked Adhara sweetly.

The students (all of them fifth years from Gryffindor and Slytherin) looked at Umbridge with open amusement. Adhara had outsmarted her _again!_

A few even dared to snicker, but a glare sent their direction quickly changed that.

Which was why the next Educational Decree involved her giving out detentions, the same as any teacher or prefect.

* * *

Hermione Granger was her first victim. And, unknown to the Toad at the time, her last.

Hermione stomped out of that room, trying to suppress her tears of pain, when she ran right into Adhara. Who took one look at her bleeding hand and developed a rather...disturbing smile.

The next night, instead of Granger returning for her second detention (she had been given a week's worth of them, for kicking the son of a prominent pure-blood family in the nether regions) something else came in instead.

It was a second year with pink hair of all things.

And that really should have been the first clue that something horrible was about to happen. She should have paid more attention to the rumors the students had about the Pink Demon of Slytherin, who had become the more nasty teacher's favorite form of legal torture for misbehaving students.

It wasn't until the girl began to literally vibrate in the chair that all hell broke loose.

As well as her precious kitten plates.

When she finally managed to hex the brat, something really unexpected happened.

The pink haired girl turned into a massive, two tailed cat demon from hell. And she proceeded to thoroughly wreck the office they had given her. All of her blood quills, doilies, frilled covers and precious china were completely obliterated beyond the point that a spell could fix them.

For three whole hours the little fiend destroyed her office, and then ran out into the halls.

She promptly gave the brat a detention...only for it to be repeated the next night.

After that she learned to choose her victims more carefully.

* * *

Bella Black was easily the darling of the teaching staff. Most of which actually _knew_ who she was, and that she was no threat to the students.

Just in case though, they only ever allowed her outside if Adhara or Ikkaku was around. Because for some reason, Umbridge learned that little Bella was the younger sister of Adhara (easiest story they could come up with) and that made her a target.

Not that the teachers cared about the fact that Adhara openly defied the Ministry toad that had been sent.

The only real problem they had was keeping Yachiru and Bella far from any sweets in the castle. They already banned the house elves from giving the girls sugar.

(They had already experienced hell on Halloween, when Adhara came down with a nasty cold and didn't warn her friends in time about the holiday and the fact that there would be enough sugar for Yachiru to go totally postal for nearly a full day.)

Bella joined the girls on their morning runs. Adhara had already come up with a good system to bring the students into proper physical form before Christmas.

And despite how much they hated it, they put up with the running and other exercises because she made it worth their time and effort.

* * *

Adhara had had enough of the Toad. Not only was she trying to torture the students (she set Yachiru on the woman every time she even considered the idea) she was such a hypocrite that it was driving everyone insane!

There was only one sane solution to the Toad. The only issue was getting Ichigo to agree to it.

"_Kurosaki residence."_

"Ichigo home?"

"_What's up Tatsuki?"_

"I need Shiro."

"_Can't you call up Toshiro from your phone?"_

"I wasn't talking about Toshiro. I was talking about the _other_ Shiro."

There was silence on the soul pager...then...

"_Who the hell pissed you off so bad that you're willing to unleash Shirosaki on them?"_

"We call her...the Toad. Can I borrow Shirosaki for a few weeks or not?"

Ichigo seemed to think about it, then he said _"If you get busted by Avalon for this, my name had damn well better not be mentioned. And you're filling out the paperwork for any destruction he causes!"_

"Deal."

_Two days later..._

Ikkaku paused in his torment...er, training of the students. He was having too much fun getting these overweight brats into shape.

He had felt that power before...but where...?

A white blur knocked him over. His eyes widened and he swore.

No wonder it had felt familiar! It was Ichigo's hollow side, the one Adhara had flippantly named Shirosaki!

"What in the nine hells are _you_ doing here!" he shouted.

Shirosaki smirked. Several of the first year boys started crying from fear.

"_She called for me. Asked if I would take care of a little...Toad problem,_" he sneered.

Adhara walked up to him, smirking.

"Bout time you showed up. Ikkaku, if any of them slacks off they'll be training with Shirosaki!" she barked.

Ikkaku really pitied any kid who slacked off today.

"_So where's this Toad you mentioned?"_

Adhara sneered, and his insane grin widened. She had him in a small alcove where he wouldn't been seen that quickly, and pointed to the pink monstrosity that was harassing Snape.

"That...is the Toad. Annoy her however you like, provided it doesn't end in her immediate death. Also, you'll be happy to know most of their spells won't affect you, since you two are at least at captain level."

His insane smirk widened even more.

"Just to warn you though, due to the large amount of magic permeating the air, the students and teachers can and will see you. Just ask the red headed twins where the best places to ambush that hag are."

She pointed out the terror twins.

And that was the start of what would later be known as the White Nightmare of Hogwarts. It would never been spoken about except in whispers.

* * *

Adhara's evil smile caused her students to whimper. Nothing good _ever_ came when she had that look.

Out of the shadows behind her came the monster had that been terrorizing the Toad for the better part of the month. Normally they would have worried about such an obviously insane creature being within a mile of them, but it had only gone after the toad.

But when they saw a familiar wooden sword in his hand...

A few students actually broke into tears. Some actually tried for the door, only to find it firmly bolted from the outside.

"This...is Instructor Shirosaki. Unfortunately for you lot, too many of you have been slacking in kendo and wand practice. Those who's names are called are going to be his sparring partner until break. And I am here to warn you, that he will _not_ be holding back at any time."

Adhara had noted which children refused to participate, and which ones were plain lazy.

To their horror, she named each one with horrifying slowness. Whenever someone else's name was called, the other children would weep from relief.

Finally, the rest were allowed to leave.

The others ended up tied to the chairs.

Out of an entire school, fifty children were selected to...train...with Shirosaki.

A good portion of those were children of Death Eaters, or had recently been initiated and thought they could keep boycotting Adhara's rather light regiment without consequence.

The teachers, after seeing what she put herself through every morning, had never once thought to tell her to go easier on the children. She never tried to push them too hard, and neither did her assistants.

They were rather horrified by Shirosaki and his methods. He was insanely fast, extremely strong, and had little regard for his victims.

Adhara had only given him three restrictions.

One: no killing the students. Maiming or traumatizing is okay.

Two: no spells or using real swords.

Three: if she caught him trying to eat the students, she would send Yachiru after him after eating a week's worth of Honeyduke's fudge.

The teachers only _thought_ she was joking about the last one.

* * *

By the time Christmas holidays were upon them, Shirosaki had whipped those who were lagging behind into shape. Or at least hadn't killed them...yet.

Of course Adhara had no intention of being stuck in the drafty castle over the break.

In exchange for giving Rangiku enough alcohol to keep her happy, she would stay in her place as teacher.

At the very least it would piss the Toad off...Rangiku tended to get rather wild when drunk.

To her amusement, Snape volunteered to keep an eye on Adhara and Bella. They were going sightseeing. Adhara just didn't say _where_ they were going.

Snape didn't know why they were in the London Underground, only that his partner in crime was about to do something that would really annoy the old man.

Bella had learned how Yachiru rode on Adhara's shoulder, and was currently imitating a parrot. It made keeping track of her much easier.

Adhara grabbed his hand, and dragged him behind an out of order sign. That was when he knew she was really up to something.

It was common knowledge to those with Dark Ancestry that out-of-order signs in the underground tended to lead to some rather odd places where all sorts of things congregated.

"Where the bloody hell are we really going?"

Adhara had one of her evil grins.

"Nightside, please."

A tunnel appeared, and they went to what appeared to be a train station.

Snape paled. He really looked like a vampire now.

"Did you just say...Nightside?"

"What's with you? It's not like there will be anything I haven't seen before in normal London."

"You mean to tell me you actually have the Sight?" he hissed.

"Snape, I have told you before that I was already dead, and it was only because my accidental magic made me look solid that kept people believing I was alive. Being dead has a few perks."

She _had_ told him that before, but he had never believed her.

When the train arrived, she gave it a look, and it let them pass without paying.

The ride to the Nightside was...stressful. Things attacked the train, until Adhara got annoyed and told them to bugger off before she really got angry.

After that it was relatively quiet.

"So this is the Nightside. Cool."

Bella was cheerfully clinging to Adhara's back, enjoying the odd sights and sounds. Snape looked like he was about to have a heart attack right there.

"Right, first stop, Time Tower."

"How in the hell did you hear about the Nightside?"

"Really Severus, I get around. Besides, Kyoko has been here before."

"Your dragon has been here before."

"Actually my sword has. She hasn't always been tied to me you know. Besides, she wanted to visit her granddad and this was the easiest place to find him," said Adhara amused.

Adhara drew her sword, and allowed it to phase through the sidewalk. No one even stared as her sword's spirit appeared.

Kyoko was very feminine, for someone who had an owner as violent as Adhara.

_**(There is a manga called **_**Time Stranger Kyoko****_ if you want to see what Adhara's sword spirit looks like.)_**

"Follow me!" chirped Kyoko. She seemed very happy to be out.

* * *

Snape and Adhara followed the girl to a strange tower. The defenses reacted to her presence, then relaxed as it recognized her nature.

Kyoko walked right up to the Tower doors and knocked.

They opened without question.

They went inside, Snape staying very, very close to Adhara.

Only Kyoko seemed unconcerned about the disturbing images the elevator bombarded them with. Finally after seeing what she would have looked like had Dumbledore had his way (and she had been born male), Adhara snapped.

"_Either you cut the crap or I break you," _she snarled.

It actually whimpered, and stopped the tricks.

When the doors opened, Kyoko squealed and tackled the man before them.

"Grandpa!"

"Hello Kyoko. I see you brought your wielder with you."

Old Man Time looked at Adhara critically. Finally he gave a sniff of approval. Adhara was one of the rare humans who had always followed the rules of Time. When faced with a chance to prevent war, she had first looked at how it would turn out before she intervened.

While he disapproved of people messing around with Time, Adhara at least considered the ramifications before she acted.

Though even he enjoyed that little joke she had pulled by stealing the swords from right under them.

Old Man Time looked at Severus Snape, who was still in shock. He wasn't used to the true face of the world around him. It was only a blessing he wasn't born with the Sight.

He really would have panicked then.


	16. Chapter 16

Adhara was rather impressed by Old Man Time. Not so much when he told her that in order to leave, she had to at least use her bankai.

Even though she had unlocked it, she was rather reluctant to use it for three reasons.

One, it would allow her to become a captain class Shinigami and she could lose her only protection from only using her shikai. Two, Kyoko had told her that if she tried and failed to control it, she would lose all her powers over time. And three...if she actually succeeded she would lose Kyoko as a sword spirit and have to take control of the girl's powers.

She wasn't that eager to use it anyway.

"Will you accept the test or not, Adhara Potter?"

Adhara realized that the Nightside was probably the best place to use her bankai, because no one would register it on their radar.

Snape and Bella watched in surprise.

"Fine. Where do you want me to stand?"

Old Man Time smiled, and took her into a side room full of clocks. It would block the test from outside interference. Adhara would be completely on her own until it was over.

Adhara drew her staff, and said clearly "Bankai."

Time stopped completely in the room. In order to complete her final release, she had to take control of Time itself without using Kyoko or her familiar.

After having Kyoko for nearly three years, and only using her powers twice, she didn't have that good a handle on it. However, since Dumbledore had tried to kidnap her and she had ended up in the past with her parents, she had learned a few tricks.

She remembered how to stop time from using the power so she could switch the tainted food with whoever had ruined it.

She knew how to steal time from Aizen's betrayal and taking the swords from them.

She knew how to go forward in time thanks to the jumping she had to do in order to get home.

She could look into the past easily with a mirror, but she never bothered to look into the future because it was always changing.

So she took a deep breath, and threw her magic out into the world. Her full power was being used to make time go forward for one full minute. When the clocks struck twelve, she then used her power to go back twelve hours. She was used to going back, so it only took a moments thought.

And with the strike of the grandfather clock, the door opened.

"Impressive. Not many could manipulate time, particularly with so little practice," said Old Man Time.

Adhara grinned at him, though she was exhausted from actually using her magic all out like that.

"I suppose your title of Time Sorceress was well earned. You do realize what this means, don't you?"

"What?"

"From now on you're a full Guardian of Time. So long as you don't abuse it anyway."

"So basically I'm immortal unless I get killed or abuse my power," she said.

He nodded.

"What else is new?"

* * *

Snape was all too happy to leave. While he rather enjoyed the fact that no one looked twice at his snarky attitude (though he was very startled to learn that he had a twin in the Nightside...that happened to be the descendant of Merlin himself which the old sorcerer could manifest at will) they did give Adhara a wide berth.

Particularly when she not only chatted up an infamous female bounty hunter, but exchange phone numbers with the woman over a bottle of gin. Finding out that Shotgun Suzie (also know as Oh Christ, it's Her, Run) actually _liked_ Adhara was enough to get everyone to stay far, far away from her.

("I love how you operate girl! Tell ya what, if you ever kick the bucket look me up in the Seireitei and we can go drinking. You can help me kick the asses of my squad!"

Suzie smirked, and accepted the offer. Adhara was her kind of girl. Tough, violent and didn't take crap from anybody. Plus she liked to beat people bloody for annoying her and enjoyed the screams of people who pissed her off.

They toasted their new friendship with the bottle of gin Adhara had ordered for her.)

Snape found the entire thing far too disturbing and made a note never to anger Adhara. Not if he valued his life.

On the plus side, he now had several foul and disgusting things to slip in Dumbledore's coffee in the morning. He actually couldn't wait to slip the old man the drink that Alex called Angel's Urine.

(According to him, it was the literal name and not just a product label.)

They had left the Nightside after Adhara went to one last shop...that was run by a mouse of all things.

(Really, after the nightmarish shopping trip she had forced him to endure, he shouldn't have been that surprised about the Dormouse. Though to be fair she did get him several extremely rare ingredients he wouldn't have gotten anywhere else.)

The minute he returned to the school, he went straight to his office and crashed.

Bella had gone to see Yachiru and was currently annoying the hag. Adhara was busy making sure Shirosaki wasn't killing anyone.

All in all, a rather successful Christmas break.

Even if Adhara _did_ lose her sword spirit, only to gain her powers. As far as anyone knew, the dragon she had turned into her familiar _was_ her zanpakuto spirit.

* * *

Umbridge was being extra annoying, as she tried and failed to get the students on her side. Even with the newly made faction in the school that gave them roughly the same rights as prefects, no one would join her except the exceedingly dense.

Adhara had gained the love and respect of almost the entire school. If she were to turn against the Ministry, there was little doubt in the woman's mind that the students would join her in a heartbeat.

Which meant she had to go, and soon. It didn't help that Adhara counteracted all of her attempts to weed out the undesirable teachers like Flitwick and Trelawny.

Ever so slowly, the end of the year exams crept up. But not before the tension between Adhara and the Toad had reached a boiling point.

The woman refused to take a hint, even when Bella _and_ Yachiru decimated all of her belongings. She refused to back off even when Shirosaki threatened to eat her soul.

(Though he confided to Adhara that even if he was starving for souls, he wasn't _that_ desperate for hers. She was repulsive in more ways than one.)

Though after that exchange Adhara reluctantly had to send Shirosaki back to Ichigo. The last thing she wanted to do was explain why she allowed him to eat a human.

Fortunately she had something to distract her. Namely the looks Snape was giving the book she happened to be reading. The absolute shock and disbelief was hilarious, particularly since it was coming from _him_.

"What in the name of Morgan, Maeve and Hecate is _that_?"

Adhara gave him an amused grin, as she said bluntly "It's a very hardcore yaoi comic."

Snape couldn't help his rather morbid curiosity as to what 'yaoi' was. Particularly since the book she happened to be reading had an adults only sticker on the front.

When she handed him one of her lesser yaoi books, his fascination turned to complete and utter shock, to the amusement of the Slytherins.

Particularly the girls, most of which knew very well what Yaoi was.

The range of colors on Snape's face were rather interesting. Pale, then bright scarlet to blank.

The girls all snickered at his predicament.

"I've got some hentai too if you're interested," she said, trying not to laugh.

"Do I dare ask...?"

Her smirk never left her face (and she really resembled her birth father at that moment) as she handed over one of her hentai books.

It took exactly four seconds for the man to develop a nosebleed and faint from blood loss. It took three seconds for every Slytherin in the room to laugh.

Adhara gave them all a two fingered salute and take back her books.

The students all cheered, as they took turns to poke Snape. Ten minutes later he woke up and deducted points from everyone, on general principles.

* * *

Adhara slept badly during the OWLs. Something or someone was trying to send her a vision, but was having trouble doing it.

Finally, it broke through around noon.

It was Sirius. He was somewhere in the Ministry in a room full of prophecy globes. And he was being tortured.

She woke up with a start. That was entirely too vivid.

She grabbed the mirror and called her brother/godfather. (Sirius found the fact that his sister happened to be his missing goddaughter extremely confusing. Fortunately Adhara had solved his dilemma on how to speak to her by telling him to just call her Tatsuki.)

But it wasn't Sirius who answered.

It was Kreacher.

"Kreacher, is that idiot brother of mine alright?"

"The idiot has yet to leave the house, Lady Black. Shall I get him?"

"No need. Tell him to avoid the Ministry for the rest of the week until I figure out what the hell is going on."

"Yes Mistress."

* * *

Adhara waited until nightfall before she went down to the Ministry. Bella, not wanting to be left behind, rode on her shoulder. Beside her was Yachiru who had gotten bored with the school.

She knew something was wrong, so she came prepared...with enough sugar to set Yachiru on a four hour sugar high. Bella, at least, wasn't as bad as Yachiru when hyper. Though that could have been because was an adult who was now a child.

Adhara knew it was not a good idea to leave Bella behind in England with only her sister to keep her company, which was why she was currently negotiating with Captain Yamamoto to bring Bella to the Soul Society and using the same method Yachiru had to keep from aging unless she felt like it.

How that girl managed that, she had no idea, but it had intrigued the creepy clown bastard from Squad Twelve enough that he was currently researching it.

Right now she was leaning heavily on turning Bella into a soul reaper like herself and seeing whether they could de-age her after.

She stalked through the Ministry corridors, noting that it was completely empty. Well, except for a few janitors on the fourth and fifth floors.

Something drove her down, deep into the heart of the Ministry. Until she found herself standing before a door. It was rather plain, for a wizard door.

Still, she opened it and went in.

Whatever had called her to this place was stronger now, as she took random twists and turns. Until she found herself in the hall where Sirius supposedly was being tortured.

The pull was at it's strongest...and she found herself before a single shelf full of prophecy orbs. Looking through the catalog, she found the origin of the pull.

It was a prophecy with her name and Voldemort on it. Her hand closed around the orb without her realizing it.

It was then that they appeared. Death Eaters.

She glared at them, and realized what had happened. Someone had placed a spell on the prophecy so that she could retrieve it for them.

Which annoyed her beyond belief.

"Right...so who is going to hell first?" she snapped.

One of the newer Death Eaters (who clearly didn't know of her reputation) sneered at her.

And was promptly left on the ground twitching while he tried to remember how to breath. Adhara was not in a good mood, and it was unlikely the man would ever have children after how hard she had just kicked him.

And that set off the fight. Yachiru had already been given the candy (and was already destroying the Hall of Prophecies) while Bella made sure her sticking charm was still working as Adhara beat the living hell out of everyone there.

It was turning into an all out battle, and she was beginning to tire. So she decided to use her full magical powers and really let them have it.

"_Time Dragon Power, Make Up!"_

And then the Death Eaters screamed like the damned as they felt their robes catch on fire. Say what you will about Adhara, but even idiots should know better than to annoy an insane pyromaniac with enough energy to set fire to an entire forest and still have power to blast you.

Bella squealed with childish glee as she watched her former husband and brother-in-law burn alive. The two had taken turns turning her into the monster the magical community viewed her as. Thankfully most people believed the lie that she had been killed in a fight, so no one would come after her later.

Adhara's evil cackle sent chills down the spines of those still conscious.

By the time she made it back to the top of the stairs, he was waiting for her.

On the plus side, he no longer wanted to have her as his Dark Lady. He just wanted her dead. Her sneer outdid his own, as she threw a punch at him.

She remembered all too clearly the feeling of lightning when their skin touched. But she shook it off, and kept her assault on him.

It quickly became a fight between their magic, as Voldemort sent spell after spell towards Adhara. Her natural reflexes kept them from ever getting close. Finally, she grew pissed towards the Dark Lord when he nearly hit Bella.

"_Ruler, Mask of Blood and flesh, all things in the universe that fly, that which names all! In the name of truth and temperance, dig you claws into the walls of sinless dreams! Bakudo number 33: Shakkaho!"_

Adhara was very, very good at casting any kido that involved destruction.

It was with some glee that she watched Voldemort get hit by the massive ball of flame. Since the man had split his soul into several pieces, the kido reacted rather violently to his very nature. The scream turned into a howl of pure pain as the spell tore away his poorly constructed body.

Without warning, Voldemort exploded.

Adhara would have left right then, but something told her to stick around.

It seemed that Voldemort was reforming into a hollow. Her smirk widened to insane levels. The Dark Lord was _finally_ in her territory, which meant that she could kill him off then and there and not have to fill out insane amounts of paperwork and lose half her check!

She drew her sword. Since Voldemort had a rather large amount of spiritual pressure as a hollow, no one would fault her for using bankai.

She leveled her sword at the fiend that was still forming. Whatever magic Voldemort had used to stay alive was fighting against the transformation.

If she didn't kill him now, he would likely join Aizen and become a bigger pain in the ass to deal with later.

She took a deep breath and activated her bankai.

"_Strike through the stream of time, Jikanryu no Kyoko!"_

She heard her familiar roar as their power combined in a blast of pure time magic. Bella had already dropped off Adhara's shoulder and hidden with Yachiru when she felt the monster being formed.

Her sorceress outfit transformed under the power of Adhara's bankai. Though why it chose that particular outfit, she would never figure out.

Where she originally resembled Eternal Sailor Moon with a somewhat modified color scheme, she now looked like a black haired Neo Queen Serenity. The only thing missing (to her relief) was the distinctive hair style that Usagi had.

Kyoko's wings were fully formed on her back, in the same place as before. Her dress (she hated wearing dresses and always put on her skirts under protest) went down to her knees, and was a pure emerald and silver in color. The collar above her chest had stars instead of the circles. Where the crown would normally rest was a tiara of pure silver, with emeralds, sapphires, rubies, amethysts and amber colored jewels decorating the metal. It was done in a rather tasteful way.

Where her staff had been was now a tachi sword, with a pair of dragon claws making up the hilt. Kyoko was around the base of the blade, while still being part of it. There was a chain at the botton of the sword with a crescent moon hanging at the end. The blade itself was pure black in color.

Her shoes were still the same, though now they were completely white instead of pale gray. Her hair was done up in a rather decorative braid.

Around her neck was a necklace with the flower representing the eleventh division.

All in all it was a rather impressive sight.

"That does it. I am never letting anyone see this bankai!" she growled.

She turned to Voldemort, who was almost completely a hollow.

She charged, not wanting to give him a chance to escape if she could help it.

The roar he let off when the transformation was complete almost deafened her. Her sword went through his mask like butter.

She wasn't surprised in the least when mere moments after cleansing his soul, the gates of Hell slammed down.

She watched with grim satisfaction as the gates opened and the soul of Voldemort was sent down into the very depths of hell.

He had been avoiding his fate for a very, very long time.

Adhara released her bankai, relieved when her outfit went back to normal.

She took out the orb that had caused this whole mess, and smashed it. She didn't even care to listen to the contents. Once she picked up Yachiru and Bella, they returned to the castle with none the wiser.


	17. Chapter 17

_**Death Eaters arrested after being attacked in Ministry!**_

_In a surprise turn of events, the workers in the Department of Mysteries arrived late this morning to discover nearly a hundred Death Eaters in full regalia unconscious in the Hall of Prophecies. Further investigation revealed that one of the prophecy orbs had been removed._

_To add to the confusion, Ministry workers arrived to the Atrium to find it nearly demolished and signs of a very recent magical battle, as well as marks of an unknown magic used._

_The two lone workers from the Janitorial department claim to have heard a battle occurring in the Ministry roughly around midnight, which ended after a monster howled in pain._

_Aurors are working overtime to figure out exactly who or what took out the Death Eaters that are currently awaiting trial._

* * *

Dumbledore, when he read the Prophet that morning, actually stormed into the Great Hall looking furious. Adhara put down the paper with amusement, and looked at him.

"How could you? What in the name of Merlin possessed you to go to the Ministry and retrieve the prophecy?" he demanded.

Umbridge looked positively gleeful as she listened.

Adhara leveled a look in her direction, and then glared at Dumbledore.

"I don't answer to you, old man, and I never will. You think I am blind? I know you tried to control me all those years ago, and you failed then. If you think for one moment I will allow you to use and discard me, then you are destined to face the Gates of Hell sooner than you believe."

Dumbledore drew to his full height, fury radiating from his core. The students drew back in shocked horror. Adhara's glare deepened.

"Old man, either you back down now and let this drop, or I will have to break you."

When it became clear that Dumbledore fully intended to do something to her, Snape tried to intervene. Adhara stopped him simply by raising her arm.

"No, Severus. This is my fight with the goat. Get the students and everyone else out. It's time I finished this battle of wills once and for all."

Snape nodded. He saw how serious the girl was in her quest to teach Dumbledore not to trifle with her.

Umbridge couldn't be happier. Once the fight was over, she fully intended to attack the winner from behind, since it was unlikely either would be in a condition to fight her. It was a win-win scenario for her.

At least, until Bellatrix Black came from behind and hexed her into unconscious oblivion.

She was no stranger to backstabbing. Students who normally would have run from the formerly insane woman, now applauded. She was easily the lesser of two evils.

* * *

Dumbledore took the Elder wand, and shot a hex at Adhara. One way or another, he was ending this battle. She was too powerful for him to allow her to leave the school. And since she would never be his pawn, she would have to die.

For once, Adhara was at half strength, which made the battle more even than it would have normally. Even she needed time to recover the magic she had spent the night before.

Her staff glinted in the sunlight. The red sand wasn't moving just yet. This was the one fight where she didn't care if she had to cheat using her powers over time.

For every spell Dumbledore sent at her, she threw two more. But it was clear even to the old man she was tiring too quickly. Part of the reason why he had chosen to confront her immediately after reading the article.

What Adhara lacked in spell power she made up with insane amounts of magic. Years of living with Ichigo and Kenpachi had only made it worse. Fortunately, she did have a fall back option.

Where her magic was starting to fail, her spirit energy would pick up. Unlike Dumbledore, she had a secondary power that wasn't nearly as exhausted as her magical core.

The only downside was that if she used it she tended to become wraith like outside magical areas.

Not that it would become a problem in a place like Hogwarts though.

When a simple stunner failed to come out, Adhara promptly switched to kido. She wasn't going to use her shikai unless she absolutely had to.

Alas, Dumbledore was far too smart (and had seen her beat the hell out of Death Eaters before) to allow her anywhere near him. Which meant punching his lights out wasn't an option.

_(Pity, that.)_

So she tried something new. A trick she had considered but never had the time to try out before.

She fired pure spirit energy out of her fist towards the old man. It took her a minute to figure out how.

And then it became a whole new ball game as Dumbledore did his very best to evade her blasts of power.

It would have continued for hours...if not for one important fact.

Hogwarts was more sentient than the headmaster gave it credit for.

When he had left an innocent child in the cold night on a doorstep where she wouldn't be wanted, it had been annoyed. When he attempted to control the construct that the girl had left behind, it had become angry.

But when he endangered the students simply because one of it's children had finally become a power which could rival his...

Well, let's just say that he had found himself caught between a rock and a hard place as Hogwarts used something that had been dormant since it was created.

The founders were not fools. They had placed safe guards in place to protect every student that came through it's walls. Even safe guards against the people who were supposed to be leading the school.

For years the castle had watched silently as the magic slowly became stagnant and blood purity was encouraged to healthy levels. While it had accepted Dumbledore as the Headmaster because of little to no other options, it had also kept a very close eye on the man. Particularly when he did nothing to Tom Marvolo Riddle when it was clear the boy was a danger to the other students.

Dumbledore had sat back and done nothing after the basilisk. He had done nothing when Tom recruited straight from the school. And he had spent far too much time keeping an eye on the fake Adhara while trying to mold her into his personal weapon.

Adhara, on the other hand, had never harmed a student. Well...not too badly anyway. And she had protected the students from the woman that tried to control them.

For every bad thing Dumbledore allowed to pass through the halls, Adhara had stood up and fought back to protect the children. She was more concerned about them than she was about herself, which meant that unlike Dumbledore, she was not effected by the wards.

It took Adhara a moment to realize that for some reason, the apparition ward that surrounded the school no longer applied to her.

Not that she could use it, since she was severely drained magically. Then again, she was still extremely powerful when it came to spirit energy.

And Dumbledore had never encountered Shun Po before.

(Yoruichi adored Adhara. It was very clear that the girl could become the next Mistress of the Flash if she ever put her mind to it.)

Then hit managed to hit her with a bludgeoning hex, and she really got mad. The pain in her arms was nothing compared to the cold calculating rage she felt towards the old man.

Which was why she abandoned all stops and activated the trick Yoruichi had taught her shortly after mastering Flash Step.

She called it Shun Ko. About the only downside Adhara could see to the move was the fact that it completely obliterated anything on the back and shoulders.

Fortunately, she had developed her shinigami outfit after the one Yoruichi wore. As soon as her magical reserves dropped below useable levels, she had abandoned her Sorceress outfit and immediately shifted to her shinigami one.

Dumbledore blinked once, and then cried out in pain as she neatly ripped half his right arm off.

The Elder wand clattered to the floor, and rolled a bit before stopping against a stone.

The old headmaster was in so much pain that he was having trouble clotting the blood. Adhara did it for him, not wanting his death on her hands with a well placed kido spell.

She didn't heal his arm, but rather used her flames to cauterize the wound so it wouldn't bleed out. If he could reattach his right arm from the elbow, it would be a miracle.

As it was, the castle no longer accepted him as Headmaster.

She walked over to where the Elder wand was, fully intending to snap it in half. But when she felt the rush of power go through her, she realized it wasn't an ordinary wand at all.

So she pocketed it instead.

* * *

Ten minutes after the crashing and cursing died down, Snape dared to poke his head into the great hall.

It looked like a war zone, only without the bodies. Mostly.

Dumbledore looked like hell. Adhara was breathing heavily, which was extremely unusual for her. She had taken out and entire Death Eater base and thrown the Dark Lord through a wall.

She took one look at his concern and waved him off.

"I'm fine. Just need a few days away to recover."

"Was he really that powerful?" he finally asked.

"About the same as Moldy Shorts before I took him out, or a few pegs above him. I wasn't exactly running on full when he started this fight."

McGonagall came in, took one look at Dumbledore and tried very hard not to faint.

Adhara looked at her tiredly.

"Congrats teach, you just got promoted."

McGonagall looked at her sharply.

"By who's authority?" she demanded.

Adhara was started to feel faint by now.

"Ask the hat, he'll explain it better than I can. Keep...the Toad...away from...me..." she said before fainting. Snape was quick to catch her.

Snape looked at McGonagall. Then at Adhara.

"I don't know about you, but I don't want to deal with the students at this point. Free day as long as they stay away from the Great Hall?" he suggested.

She nodded faintly. Albus would have to be taken to St. Mungo's for treatment. And the students would have to eat in their common rooms to avoid the mess Adhara and Dumbledore had made of the great hall.

* * *

McGonagall went into the Headmaster's office, and the hat was waiting for her.

"So Albus has finally fallen. I'm surprised this didn't happen sooner."

She looked at the scrap of cloth with surprise.

"What do you mean?"

"The castle wasn't too happy with him. It was only a matter of time before he snapped, and we were afraid he would take the students with him. How badly did he fall?" asked the hat.

"Adhara almost ripped his right arm completely off. She's currently sleeping it off in her rooms, and the students have been banned from the great hall."

The hat nodded. While it had a stronger connection to the castle than anyone had ever expected, it was still unable to see the fight.

"What did Adhara mean I had been promoted?"

"In the event that the headmaster abandons his duties or willingly endangers the students, his or her successor will be given the duties as the master of the school, unless they participated in harming the students. In other words, Minerva McGonagall, you are now the headmistress of Hogwarts," said the hat.

McGonagall pinched the bridge of her nose. It had been a very trying day.

"Also, the Aurors have been informed of the attack against Adhara, and will be at St. Mungo's shortly to arrest Albus."

"...Where did he keep his liquor?" she asked.

"Third shelf in the cabinet, behind the bottles of migraine potion," said the hat helpfully.

McGonagall pulled out the bottle of Ogden's Finest, poured herself a shot, then promptly downed another.

She was going to need it once the news got out that Albus bloody Dumbledore attacked a teacher...and had lost his position of Headmaster to her.

She immediately took one more shot, and prepared for all hell to break loose later.

* * *

_**ALBUS DUMBLEDORE ARRESTED FOR ATTACKING TEACHER! UMBRIDGE TO BE SENT TO AZKABAN FOR ILLEGAL USE OF BLOOD QUILLS!**_

_In a shocking turn of events, Albus Dumbledore, former headmaster of Hogwarts, attacked the current Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and Girl-who-lived in the great hall during breakfast. Adhara Midnight Potter-Black, the infamous Time Sorceress and defeater of the Dark Lord, managed to not only subdue the aging wizard but injure him in a massive battle of wills._

_Albus Dumbledore is currently under strict guard by no less than forty Aurors while the Mediwizards at St. Mungo's try to reattach his right arm, which Adhara had somehow managed to rip off._

_Minerva McGonagall is the current acting Headmistress, due to the ancient laws of the Castle set down by the founders._

_In other news, Delores Umbridge, Hogwarts first High Inquisitor was arrested early last night for illegally using blood quills on students. Several pure blood children testified against her, and claim that Professor Adhara was the only teacher who dared to do something about the blatant disregard for the students safety._

_There are unconfirmed rumors that Bellatrix Black (formerly Lestrange) was the one to take out the Ministry Employee..._

* * *

Adhara blinked...and then blinked again.

She wasn't in her room at Hogwarts. And she wasn't in some hospital bed either.

Where was she? Slowly, she got up.

And realized with a start where she was.

She was home. Not the home she had left behind in England, but her room back in Japan. The one she had left behind whenever she took the post of DADA for the year and had to become Adhara again.

She relaxed...and slipped back into being plain old Tatsuki. It was something of a relief actually.

After about two hours of just laying there, dozing, she got up.

It took her three seconds to realize that she truly was home.

Because Orihime, Ichigo, Chad, and Uryu were all in her kitchen, talking with her parents.

"How long was I out?" she asked, startling them all.

Orihime didn't waste any time as she tackled the girl in a large hug.

"I'm so glad you're awake!"

"I'm glad to be home."

"You were out cold for nearly five days. Rangiku was the one who dropped you off, after she got directions. You looked pretty tired," said Ichigo.

"It was the first time I had ever depleted that much of my magic and spirit energy. I have to say, it felt pretty weird to have almost no magic or energy left to speak of."

As Adhara, she had nearly Ichigo or Kenpachi levels of power. So being that low was rather unusual for her. Even as Tatsuki she was never that weakened.

"Would you mind explaining what exactly happened?" asked Uryu.

"I had just sent that Voldemort bastard to Hell, and had barely gotten five hours of sleep. My magical power was down to about half, since I had taken out almost all of his Death Eaters before fighting the guy. Dumbledore apparently didn't like the fact I had gone down there and taken whatever prophecy had been made about me, and decided to take me out."

Uryu nodded, gesturing for her to go on.

"It took me two hours to run out of my magic, so I switched to spirit energy. Soon after, I started using shun po just to dodge his spells. When I finally got close to do some real damage, he hit me with a hex that nearly shattered my left arm. So I ripped off his right arm up to the elbow and cauterized the wound. Once I picked up his wand, the fight was definitely over. About thirty minutes once it was finally over, I passed out."

Ichigo couldn't believe she had actually run on empty. Tatsuki was roughly close to his power levels, if not at the same point. The only difference was that she had far better control than either him or Kenpachi.

Tatsuki popped her neck, then looked around.

"Has anyone seen Bella?"

Only Ichigo and Orihime knew who she meant.

"Yoruichi took her to Urahara's. She refused to leave your side once they got her here," said Ichigo.

"Any word on whether the dumbass shopkeeper or creepy clown bastard figured out the problem I gave them?"

"Urahara said he had an idea, but you weren't going to like it," said Ichigo.

Tatsuki had only one idea she could see that would give Bella a chance to grow up normally, but she hadn't liked it very well at the time.

"He'll knock her out of her body, turn her into either a soul reaper or hollow, then place her in a special gigai so her mind can catch up to her actual age," she said bluntly.

"How did you know?"

"It was the only way I could see it working. He is aware that if she turned into a hollow I would go into Los Noches and steal that bloody orb everyone was up in arms about, right?"

Ichigo winced. Since Tatsuki had left Karakura, there hadn't been even a hint of Aizen. Urahara had speculated that since Tatsuki/Adhara was far away, the thing had refused to properly awaken, which was why they had yet to hear from Aizen. He had no clue why though.

"Right...I need to stretch for a while. Being out cold for four days is going make my muscles weaken if I don't go for a run."

"I'll go with you," said Ichigo promptly.

She gave him a look.

"You're still not back up to normal levels, and the last thing we need is for you to get injured by a hollow or a bount."

"What in the nine hells is a bount?"

Uyru winced.

"Some weird human soul who is pretty much immortal by eating other human souls. They had these strange dolls, but we took care of most of them."

Uyru winced even more at that.

"You better give me all the details why we run. This sounds like it would be hilarious..." she grinned.

* * *

**_Poll for Adhara's boyfriend up on Profile!_**


	18. Chapter 18

It took little more than a week for Tatsuki to be back to normal. For some strange reason either Ichigo or Chad was always around to keep her company. Uryu was still trying to regain his powers.

She rather liked the downtime she got, even with the fact that Bella would no longer be human was coming up.

(Narcissa had agreed to it, once she learned exactly what they were planning to do with her sister. If nothing else it would convince everyone that Bellatrix Black was no longer among the living, since Tatsuki fully planned to keep her nearby.)

Of course she still had to deal with the Soul Society once people learned she had managed to bring her bankai out successfully. Several of the SWA kept bugging her to take a captain's seat, which she refused point blank.

One, she actually happened to like not having to do paperwork. And Two, there was no way in hell she was going to let people see her in that outfit.

She may love _Sailor Moon_, but even she had a limit to what she liked about the show. Besides, the dress was hard to fight in.

Once she was back up to fighting strength (though it would be a few days until she was back up to full power) she was able to take a training run with her friends in the Karate club.

No one really noticed or cared that she spent an entire year overseas in an exchange program.

* * *

She was in the park when it happened. One minute she was shadow boxing, the next an explosion happened.

She blinked, wondering what had caused such a thing.

Then she saw them. One was big and about as bright as Hagrid or Ron. The other caused her to stare though.

He had ebony black hair and eyes as green as her own when she wasn't wearing contacts. The spikes were roughly the same as hers too. In his throat was a hole, which meant he was an Arrancar. Fairly powerful one too.

While the normals all clamored around the hole, she stayed back. She had a feeling it would get ugly rather quickly.

The larger one started to inhale the souls of the area. The last thing she wanted was to fill out paperwork over the deaths.

So she retaliated by raising her magic to cover the area.

The man tried his best to suck in the souls, but all he got was most of their spirit energy. The people were in a coma, but they weren't dead.

The smaller of the two looked right at her. His expressionless eyes conveyed his surprised at what she had pulled off.

"Oi! Fatso! Knock off the soul sucking! Do you have any idea how much paperwork I would have to do for the mess you tried to make?" she yelled at him.

The man looked irritated at her nickname, though his friend was definitely amused.

"Looks like we have someone worth eating here, eh Ulquiorra?"

"It appears that she is not trash...Yammy."

The way he said that made her bristle, though she accepted the backhanded compliment.

"Who the hell are you? And what do you want?"

Ulquiorra raised an eyebrow. She was clearly aware of _what_ they were.

"I'm here on lord Aizen's request. He only came for the ride."

"You mean the boy band rejects finally decided to make a move? Figures it would only happen when I got back," she snorted.

Yammy sneered at her, though he found the nickname rather amusing. Ulquiorra stared at her with his calm, indifferent eyes.

Tatsuki stood her ground, ready to strike with her fists if they tried anything. She could sense Ichigo racing towards her. But that wasn't what concerned her at the moment.

Orihime and Chad were approaching fast. The last thing she wanted to deal with was protecting them while making sure the Arrancar didn't harm anyone.

She went into a stance. Something told her the fat one was looking for a fight.

The man grinned, and threw a punch. It felt like slow motion to her, though she wasn't too happy to feel the steel like protection on his skin.

That was when an idea occurred to her. It was spiteful, mean and highly humiliating.

Considering who she was up against, it was highly doubtful anyone would hold it against her.

So she waved her hand around Yammy, and he abruptly shifted into the form of a child. His clothes no longer fit him, and he was swimming in a sea of cloth.

Ulquiorra blinked, and it was clear that he was fighting with everything he had not to laugh at the sight.

"Behave, runt, or I swear I will make the change permanent," she smirked.

"What did you do?"

"I used a power that would get me drafted into the Royal Guard faster than I can blink. And frankly I would rather not discuss it with a spy for the bishounen reject."

Ulquiorra stared at her, the question clear in his eyes.

"Bishounen. Pretty Boy. Though frankly he always looked constantly constipated to me."

Though he showed no outward emotion, inside Ulquiorra was laughing his head off. He wondered if the girl knew _how_ he was going to give his report.

As it was, he had a feeling there would be a great deal of laughing when he returned.

Yammy finally emerged from the cloth, and he looked ridiculous.

Tatsuki hadn't just turned him into a child, she had also dyed his hair a bright pink (it now looked like Yachiru's color) with several bright yellow and red bows. When he looked down, he winced.

Somehow she had also shifted his gender.

She looked at Ulquiorra, who was definitely amused at this point and said "That won't wear off for at least a week, by the way."

Yammy snarled at her.

"_I'm going to kill you, bitch!"_ she squeaked.

Tatsuki about bust a gut laughing.

Her grin was positively _evil_ as she said "How? By trying to keep your clothes from falling off?"

Yammy's only response was to try and fire a Cero at her. Just one problem.

His spiritual pressure had yet to catch up to the new body.

Ulquiorra stared at Tatsuki, and finally asked "Who or what are you?"

"Tatsuki Arisawa... though that idiot who you follow might remember me better as Adhara, fourth seat of squad Eleven."

He was curious about something though. How powerful was this girl who took out Yammy with a mysterious power?

In order to find out, he raised his spiritual pressure enough to make a shinigami falter. Yammy stared at him in surprise.

"You gettin' serious Ulquiorra?"

Tatsuki didn't blink, because she matched his power blow for blow. He raised it higher, until he was practically about to release his sword.

She didn't even react, as her spiritual pressure was raised to the same level. It was a clash of energies.

"You are at least the level of a normal captain. Why do you claim to be only at the fourth seat?"

"Because I happen to _like_ being in Squad Eleven. And my power is not solely Spirit based as you might think. Besides, I'm still at only sixty percent strength."

He blinked in surprise. She wasn't even at full power, yet she was able to match him with ease?

It was then that two normal humans appeared. One was a girl with bright orange hair. The other felt like a hollow in human form.

Tatsuki didn't even leave his face as she told them to stay back. A wise choice, considering he might have attacked had she shown any hint of weakness. His hollow instincts screamed at him to kill and eat her to gain even more strength.

About five minutes later, the substitute shinigami finally arrived. He wasn't surprised to see Tatsuki there.

"Ichigo, you keep an eye on Orihime and Chad. The last thing I want to deal with is you getting your ass kicked."

Ichigo scowled. He resented that implication.

"What about you? You're not even up to full power yet!" he retorted.

"So? My secondary power returned to normal yesterday. And I have more than one way to activate it."

Her smirk widened and Ulquiorra tensed when she called out _"Magical, Lyrical, Kill them all!"_

Ichigo took one look at her new outfit and grinned.

"Otaku."

She smirked at him.

"Like you're one to talk, Mr. I-dress-like-an-old-man."

"Oi!"

Ulquiorra was curious as to why she changed. It was clear that her power received a massive boost once she said that odd phrase, but it didn't feel like spirit energy. At all.

Ichigo charged at him, but Ulquiorra stopped his blade with ease. The boy wasn't nearly at the girl's level just yet. She had something he lacked.

Control.

However, he had gotten the answer Aizen had demanded of him. The boy was no threat...yet. If he ever learned some actual control he would have become concerned.

Of course he had to pick up the toddler Yammy, who was definitely never going to hear the end of this once Grimmjow caught wind of it.

* * *

Aizen watched with interest as Adhara took out Yammy with absolutely no trouble at all. He knew the girl was strong, but he never suspected that she had hidden her true strength this whole time.

Grimmjow on the other hand, had absolutely loved the girl's attitude. Particularly the way she mocked Aizen and dismissed him as an actual threat.

Pity she was a Shinigami, or he would have added her to his Fraccion in a heartbeat.

Ulquiorra, however, was acting oddly.

Which was all the excuse Grimmjow needed to corner the Quatro Espada.

"What's going on with you Emo Boy?"

Ulquiorra _hated_ that nickname. But letting Grimmjow know that would definitely make it much, much worse.

"That girl..."

"Yeah? What about that Tatsuki chick?"

"She seems different from the usual shinigami. Even Gin acts like a normal shinigami."

Grimmjow had noted that too, though he couldn't say _why_ she was different.

"Maybe it has something to do with that weird power she used on Yammy?" he asked.

"That could be it."

The girl was a volcano of power. But it wasn't kido or hollow based. It was something they had never encountered before...but there were rumors of humans with very strange powers... powers that could make spirits solid in large enough quantities.

Still, Ulquiorra felt an attraction to the strange girl. She not only had large amounts of power, but she had matched his own without even blinking twice. She also shut Yammy up without actually killing him, a feat he had thought impossible up to this point. And she had done it without using her full strength.

It was clear that she was still recovering from a major battle, possibly two, yet she had dealt with them with such ease.

And her personality was completely opposite to his own. He practically personified despair...but this Tatsuki girl went out of her way to turn despair into hope.

It was rather unusual.

Perhaps Grimmjow was correct and it was her power that intrigued him. Once he got to the bottom of it, his interest might actually go away. Or he could kill her.

Whichever came first.

* * *

Tatsuki popped her bones. She was almost back to full strength, and Aizen had made his first move.

So far she had gotten back to her normal routine. But she was still out of it. She had gone by Adhara for so long she was having a bit of trouble being Tatsuki.

Fortunately her friends covered for her fairly well. And no one questioned her odd slip ups.

Everything seemed to calm down.

Right until a new student abruptly appeared in class. Tatsuki immediately glared at him, knowing he wasn't human without being told.

He shot her a surprised look, but wisely kept his mouth shut.

Roughly around lunch, Tatsuki managed to drag him into a secluded spot in the school. She threw privacy wards to insure no one would notice.

"You're not human, Quincy, Arrancar or Shinigami, so what the hell are you?"

"Vizard. You're not any of those either."

"I'm a shinigami with the powers of a witch."

Shinji's eyes widened. The Vizard had come across magic users before, and it hadn't been pretty. They made point to avoid England after that.

"So why are you here?"

"Kurosaki Ichigo. We want him to join us. Plus we owe a favor to Urahara."

"The idiot shopkeeper. Should have guessed he had something to do with this," she grumbled.

"Why is a shinigami here?"

"I was raised here. Took my parents six years to learn that I was already dead. And another two to become a shinigami. Yamamoto could care less, since I do my job and act as go between for Ichigo and the Soul Society."

"And Central 46 never complained about it?"

"Kinda hard to, with them being dead."

"Right...which squad are you in?" asked Shinji, curious.

Tatsuki smirked. She was _soooo_ going to enjoy this.

"Squad Eleven, fourth Seat Adhara Potter at your service."

His jaw dropped in absolute disbelief.

"I thought Squad Eleven didn't allow Kido users?"

"They don't. Not unless they can make up for what they perceive as a weakness."

He looked at her in curiosity.

She channeled her spirit energy into her fists, and he ducked instinctively. He could feel the power behind the punch.

"I rarely use my sword in a fight. I prefer beating the crap out of people instead."

Shinji gulped, and prayed the girl _never_ met Hiyori.

"What the hell do you mean he won't join us?" she demanded.

* * *

Hiyori was not happy. She didn't even want Ichigo to join them in the first place, and he had the nerve to refuse their offer?

Then there was the Shinigami/Witch who had confronted Shinji on his first day.

He was hiding something about her, and she was going to find out what.

Tatsuki looked at the girl before her. She felt almost like Shinji, only not as powerful.

"Who are you?"

"Hiyori. What did you do to Shinji?"

She blinked.

"If you're talking about the idiot who just showed up, I did nothing. Aside from give a minor demonstration of what I would do to him if he caused too much trouble."

Hiyori was quick to attack her. Though Tatsuki blinked twice when she realized exactly _what_ the girl had tried to hit her with.

"Did you...just try to hit me with a shoe?"

Hiyori gave her an annoyed look. Probably because she had been so quick to duck.

Tatsuki on the other hand grinned evilly.

"Is that your first reaction to getting rid of pests or am I just special?"

She shook her head. Tatsuki threw a spirit laced punch at the girl, and Hiyori's eyes widened.

"No magic or sword?"

"Who needs magic or a sword to punch someone's lights out? I've taken down a Menos with a few punches."

Which was more or less true, though Ichigo's inability to control his power certainly didn't help.

Hiyori's scowl turned into one of the most evil grins Tatsuki had ever seen...outside of her own. Or Snape's, when right before the New Year he had slipped Angel's Urine into both Dumbledore and Umbitch's first cup of morning coffee.

The result had been hilarious, as the both of them had their eyes almost pop out of complete shock and disgust. She did wonder why neither of them had caught the smell of it before drinking though.

To add to the prank, both of them had to have their stomach pumped in a muggle hospital and then held for questioning before they managed to steal their wands back from the rather clueless psychiatrists who were only trying to help them for their 'delusions of magic'.

Tatsuki had never laughed that hard in her life, and Snape had the most evil smirk on his face for a week.

Fortunately the twins would have great difficulty locating where Snape had gotten his hands on the drinks.

* * *

_**Here are the results of the poll so far for Adhara's boyfriend:**_

**Ulquiorra: **57

**Ichigo:**49

**Snape: **25

**Chad:** 19

**Uryu: **13

**Yumechika:** 11

_**If you still want your opinion known, the poll is still open people! Go onto the profile page and cast your vote!**_


	19. Chapter 19

Shinji was sweating big time when Hiyori brought Tatsuki to the warehouse they had claimed as their own. And he had to fight the urge to hide when he saw the evil grin on the girl's faces.

He would later spend the next few weeks double checking anything he ate or drank. Tatsuki had shown Hiyori how to slip foul concoctions into Shinji's food without him realizing it until it was too late. Snape had even given the girl his remaining stock of foul liquors to use. Though he kept the almost radioactive one for his personal use.

To add to the sudden change at the school, Snape had immediately signed his resignation once a good enough replacement could be found to take his place.

Everyone wished him the best of luck as he moved to Japan. They had better potion shops. At least that was the excuse he was going to use.

He was currently living in an apartment close to Urahara's shop. In exchange for lending him the training room under it, Snape would assist him in magical and Soul Society experiments that could possibly be deemed illegal by everyone else.

Urahara actually found the man's attitude towards humans refreshing, since even though he disliked humanity he didn't feel a pressing need to experiment on it excessively.

Though he still would poison any morning people with a smile on his face. There was no excuse for those.

* * *

Tatsuki was all too happy to drag Ichigo to the warehouse. In exchange for bringing him, the Vizard (she found the name rather amusing, considering it sounded far too much like _wizard_) would let her hang around them.

Once she had him there, she lay down the law.

Either he learned to work with Shirosaki or he would be stuck training with her until Aizen was taken care of. And she would use several nasty spells and drop unpleasant things in his food.

Ichigo agreed so quickly it would have made her head spin.

As soon as she made sure Ichigo was actually training, she went to the Soul Society. Today was the weekly meeting of the SWA, and the first one in a while where her friend Yuuki would be attending.

Yuuki was one of the rare people that Adhara actually got along with outside the meetings. She also had some rather good advice when it came to fashion.

The main reason they got along was this.

For some strange reason, Yuuki had the power to stop time whenever the moon became new or full. Her power absolutely refused to work during the day, which made killing hollows rather awkward.

Like Adhara, Yuuki Kuran was an orphan. The main thing that amused her was that somehow, she managed to get into the sixth squad and still keep from developing _insane_ fan girl tendencies towards her captain, who was widely regarded as one of the hottest guys in the Soul Society.

She was also a few years older than Adhara.

About two years ago, she had been sent to America to negotiate a peace agreement between the Seireitei and their afterlife. Whatever the hell they called it.

Adhara had never bothered to learn about any of the other afterlifes aside from Avalon, and that only under protest. Her job was beating the hell out of things, not negotiating.

Yuuki resembled the main character from an anime she had seen a while back before losing interest. It had been called _Vampire Knight._

She preferred werewolves to vampires any day. On the plus side, Yuuki Rose Kuran was a natural fighter and a good warrior to have on your side. She, like Adhara, didn't tolerate bullies.

That was actually _how_ they originally met. Some idiot was picking on one of the female shinigami from Squad Twelve, and Yuuki had beaten Adhara to the punch. Literally.

They just clicked after that.

* * *

Ulquiorra couldn't get that girl off his mind. It was baffling. Everyone seemed to pick up on that fact.

Especially Aizen, who had definitely become intrigued with how a girl from Squad Eleven of all things could catch the stoic Espada's interest.

He could either capture her, kill her, or trick her into joining his side. In any event, the problem would be over with.

* * *

Tatsuki was baffled when Orihime practically begged her to help train her. Sure, the girl was strong, but she wasn't cut out for fighting!

However, once Tatsuki saw the look in Orihime's eyes, she knew without a doubt that she would help the girl. If only so Orihime would be able to fight properly.

"Alright. But you'll have to do you very best not to get killed," sighed Tatsuki.

She had a simple plan.

She would con Yuuki into training with Orihime. The girl had gotten soft in her two years away, and this would be a great warm up.

Besides, this way she could have a battle royal with the girl and no one would complain about it later.

Rukia, when she learned of the little sparring match, quickly joined in.

For the next month, Tatsuki let magical doppelgangers take their place in the human world so they wouldn't be left behind.

Chad was training with Renji, Uryu had convinced his father to train him, and Ichigo was currently getting his ass kicked by Hiyori and the other Vizard.

Everyone was getting ready for the war with Aizen.

There was just one tiny problem.

Grimmjow, in a fit of boredom, decided to take out some of the major players in Karakura.

Which at the moment consisted of Ichigo, Chad, and Renji. The Soul Society had more or less left Karakura to Tatsuki, since she was the closest thing to an expert on it.

Who was currently in the Seireitei, dealing massive amounts of damage.

* * *

Once Adhara heard the alarm, she swore.

"Rukia, Yuuki, keep training with Orihime. I'll head to the World of the Living and deal with the idiots."

"You'll need backup!" said Yuuki.

"You'll be of more use getting _her_ in shape than coming. Besides, Ichigo can be my partner."

Rukia didn't debate that. The only person alive that could keep up with Adhara/Tatsuki at the moment was Ichigo. However, Zaraki could easily keep up with the girl.

Alas, he wasn't her type.

Ichigo nearly crashed into Tatsuki, who jumped down from the portal.

"Dammit to hell! Who do you..." then he blinked and wisely shut up.

Tatsuki was glaring at him, which wasn't a good sign. Fortunately she was more interested in taking her anger out on the Arrancar who had just appeared.

"You take out the idiot, I'll deal with blue boy."

"...Try not to kill me in the process, will you?"

"Fine. But you are going to pay later for almost swearing at me brat."

Ichigo hated that Tatsuki was almost a year older than he was. As such, whenever she was annoyed or vexed, she tended to call him brat.

Even so, he had to wince a few times when this Grimmjow managed to do something that people were _highly_ recommended _NOT_ to do around Tatsuki Arisawa.

They had actually added it in the rule book not to mention it around her at the school!

The word 'freak' was taboo around Tatsuki Arisawa, unless you were talking about Otaku.

If you were stupid enough to utter the word, she would glare at you something fierce. If you were using it to _describe_ her, however...

All hell broke loose.

_Did anyone catch the Arrancar that hit me?_ Grimmjow thought.

It was a surprisingly clear thought for someone who was thrown arse over teakettle through four buildings and a tree.

Ichigo winced.

"Word to the wise, never use any variation of the word 'freak' to describe her. The results are _always _extremely painful."

Grimmjow got up out of the wreckage (which Tatsuki knew she would have to pay for, even if it _was _Hollow induced...stupid paper pushers) he stared at her in disbelief.

No one had ever managed to do something like that to him in years. Centuries even! He actually grinned as he ran at her with vigor.

This girl was _fun_!

It was with some surprise that Adhara found herself having fun fighting the Arrancar. A fight which only stopped because someone interfered.

Adhara had to blink twice before her mind registered something.

Tousen actually looked better than he did back when he was still a captain!

Grimmjow scowled, but went back. His fraccion were dead anyway.

* * *

"So let me get this straight. You took out the sixth Espada and let him leave?" asked Zaraki.

"Let him live now, get a better fight later. Besides, that annoying Justice creep happened to show up. I wasn't in the mood to play hide and seek with the bastard," said Adhara.

Zaraki laughed, because she had a point. He fought him once, and it was a pain hitting him.

Since it was obvious that something was going to happen soon, Adhara stayed on alert. When Orihime went to return home for a bit, Adhara accompanied her.

And then everything went pear shaped.

* * *

"Let me get this straight...Tatsuki took your place when that Espada showed up?" asked Ichigo.

"Aizen wanted both of us, but the green eyed Espada took Tatsuki. Something about turning her against us..."

Ichigo stared, before he started laughing.

"Tatsuki, turn against us? She's more likely to turn that place into a crater than turn on us! Hell, she would probably convince Fox Face to prank the place to death!"

Orihime thought about that, and brightened up. Ichigo made a very good point. Plus if worse came to worse, Tatsuki could always use her magic to free herself.

* * *

Ulquiorra stared at the only female he had ever met that shared his looks. Raven black hair and emerald green eyes. And she was fairly thrumming with clear power.

Tatsuki looked at him with interest as well. Ulquiorra Cifer was possibly the only male she had met that could possibly match her in power. And she refused to date anyone weaker than her...it was a matter of safety more than anything.

Someone weaker would require her to split her attention during battle, and that could kill them both.

"So what exactly do you want me to do?" she asked finally.

"Play hostage."

"And what exactly is going to keep me in here?"

"If you leave, I can't protect you from the other Espada," he said bluntly.

Tatsuki took the implied challenge.

"Hope you like hide and seek boya, cause until I get to leave, you're going to have to play."

* * *

It was the fraccion bringing the breakfast that morning who alerted him to the fact she was missing.

No one had seen her leave, nor was there any damage to the walls or door.

She was just gone.

Ulquiorra felt a migraine coming on already. How the hell had she escaped?

It was the laughter outside that tipped him off to her location. He looked out the window and tried not to frown.

She was playing 'Endless Tag' with the former third Espada Nelliel. He used Sonido to get there before Aizen learned she escaped.

Tatsuki took one look at him and smirked.

"Took you long enough to find me."

Nel was currently on her shoulder.

"How did you escape?" he asked.

"That...is a secret," she said grinning.

Within an hour she was back inside her cell, and Ulquiorra went to have a calming cup of tea. She had spent half an hour playing freeze tag with him and Nelliel.

She had beaten them all with disturbing ease.

(Her version of freeze tag involved the body bind and jelly leg jinx. Ulquiorra was, sad to say, the target of most of those. Nelliel at least stay put when tagged.)

* * *

_Three hours later..._

"SHE ESCAPED!"yelled the fraccion.

Ulquiorra growled, and went outside to see if he could find her with Nelliel again.

She wasn't there.

Then Tousen's side of the structure exploded with foam coming out.

He had a baaad feeling about that.

He found his missing 'hostage' with the one person that loved chaos as much as Grimmjow.

Gin Ichimaru.

The two were looking suspiciously innocent.

"What the hell did you two do?" he asked.

"Nothing..." said Tatsuki.

Gin was as unreadable as ever.

Tousen walked out of his room covered in sticky foam...the scent indicated it was soda of some sort.

He shot Gin a look and went to use up all of his hot water.

Ulquiorra took her back to her cell, giving her a look.

"Alright, so maybe thirty Mentos in fifty gallons of diet soda was overkill..."

He pinched the bridge of his nose. He had the distinct feeling this was only going to get worse in a very short time.

* * *

_Four hours later..._

One of the newer fraccion showed up, and he sighed.

"Again?"

He nodded. Ulquiorra had already realized what she was doing. She would escape and go someplace new every time. Perhaps he should throw one of the fraccion in for her to beat up?

It took him six hours to find her...and he wasn't sure he wanted to go into _that_ particular section of the base.

For reasons he refused to think about, the girl had went into the one room no one dared to go in for sanity reasons.

Chuhlhorne's room...

Tatsuki was not only _in_ the room with the cross dressing Espada, she was debating skirts with it! The Espada was delighted to have someone to talk to, and was heartily debating length and color coordination with her.

Having felt the wind when the door opened, Tatsuki smirked.

"Why don't you join us Ulquiorra? I'm sure he would be delighted to share fashion tips," she called out evilly.

Ulquiorra shuddered at the thought. Grimmjow would _never_ let him live that down if he saw him in one of those outfits. On the other hand, if he couldn't get her to stay in one room for more than a few hours...

"I have a better idea..." he said, daring to go into the room.

Tatsuki's smirk widened. Finally, he was joining in her plan to drive Aizen insane!

* * *

Aizen went to check on their hostage...only to find the room empty. Frowning, he went in search of Ulquiorra.

Only to find two halves of his base screaming in absolute horror. The sight that greeted him had him stop cold in shock.

Grimmjow and nearly two thirds of the fraccion that lived in his base were dressed in what appeared to be Chuhlhorne's clothes. Harribel was one of the few unscathed.

Standing beside Gin and Chuhlhorne was the missing hostage...and her grin did not inspire good thoughts.

"Could someone explained what is going on here?" he finally asked.

"We were bored," answered the hostage. Adhara if he remembered right.

After two hours, sanity was temporary restored to Hueco Mundo...and Adhara was bored out of her mind again. Aizen, when he heard of the repeated escapes, had placed a camera in her room to see how the hell she did it.

If only to prevent further escapes. Ulquiorra was one of those watching the monitors like a hawk.

One of the younger fraccion went in to deliver her dinner. Adhara was waiting on one side of the door, just out of view of the girl. When it was open wide enough for her to slip through...she vanished.

Gin rewound the tape.

One minute Adhara was there, the next she wasn't. She never moved a muscle.

"Now where did she go? No one could go very far even with Shun Po. And someone would have sensed her spirit pressure if she had used it!" said Ulquiorra.

Someone tapped him on the shoulder.

He turned...and found Adhara smirking at him.

"Tag, you're it!"

Ulquiorra groaned...this was going to be a long four days.


	20. Chapter 20

For the four days that Tatsuki was a hostage, Ulquiorra had come very, very close to killing her himself. Every time they opened the door to give her food, she vanished without a trace.

And the most frustrating part was that they had no idea _how_ she kept getting out!

It had become common to hear Ulquiorra scream in rage when he heard she had escaped again. Even watching her on the monitor didn't help.

Which was why he was going to try a different tactic.

He was going to wait in the room with her until she finished her food. And he wasn't going to blink until the door closed.

* * *

"Want to see my trick up close?" she asked, smirking.

Ulquiorra said nothing.

Adhara patiently ate her lunch...and right as she set down the chopsticks she vanished.

Ulquiorra blinked.

Where did she go?

Aizen ran in. He was twitching. For some reason he had been targeted the most whenever she got loose.

She was worse than the Pink Demon of Squad Eleven!

At first her pranks had been easy to deal with... a few sake bottles and migraine pill...order was restored.

Then she started using some strange kido and everything went pear shaped in a hurry.

Walls became furry, minor Hollows ran through the halls at odd hours, and Grimmjow refused to leave his room unless he was helping her prank everyone else.

And then there was Nelliel. The green haired former Espada had taken a real shine to her, and was often seen helping prank the two who had gotten her cast out in the first place.

Szayel and Nnoitra were the ones who got hit worst. Once, Adhara had tied all three of them up, and then turned Aizen into a spork and Szayel into a regular fork.

To say Grimmjow had loved it was an understatement. Apparently Szayel had a nasty tendency to hit on him. The jaguar Espada had taken many pictures, with Adhara posing Aizen, Nnoitra and Szayel for him.

And they still didn't know how the hell she got them dressed like that without them fighting her.

Adhara seemed to click with most of the female Espada, because a few times she had gone into their rooms for the night for a girl's night in.

It involved strong sake and lots of it. Starrk had made her swear never to give Lilynette sake again.

Lilynette and Nelliel drunk off their ass and on a sugar high...

The mere memory of that night sent Arrancar running for their lives. It was Yachiru in the Menos Forest all over again.

* * *

It was a full week after she had been taken that Ichigo _finally _arrived. And just like he expected, when he mentioned he was there for the raven haired girl that was taken, the Arrancar couldn't wait to get rid of her.

For some strange reason though, only Gin actually enjoyed her usual escape pranks.

A few times when they went into the room, the arrancar ended up with tie dyed hair in neon colors. They had no idea how she even did that!

Ichigo, Uryu and Chad were allowed up without a fight, since they were removing Adhara. She had become a real nuisance to everyone.

They all stared at what had become of Hueco Mundo.

And jumped when an alarm went off in the distance.

"Son of a... She's out! Run for your lives!" screamed a random hollow.

Suddenly someone tapped Ichigo on his shoulder. He turned to find...Adhara with a green haired girl on her shoulder?

"Yo."

"I would say we're here to rescue you, but I get the feeling they need rescuing from _you_," said Ichigo smirking.

"I was bored and the only thing to read here are the Spoon's rather boring hentai magazines."

Uryu blushed, and Tatsuki smirked.

"Prude."

"Who's the kid?"

"Former third Espada Nelliel. We just call her Nel. And I already know that she makes me looks like my captain, so shut it Berry."

"How bad did you hit them?" asked Chad out of morbid curiosity.

She held up photos, and the three stared before they started laughing.

"Grimmjow gave me double copies. I'm going to make a killing selling these to Aizen's little fan club. And Hinamori might finally snap out of whatever funk she's still in."

Ichigo couldn't help it, he cackled evilly.

Aizen appeared, and he actually looked _relieved_ to see Ichigo.

"Take her, please! We can't take any more of this!"

"Why didn't you just release her?"

Tatsuki sniggered.

"They couldn't. Not if they wanted to save face. Besides, it's been fun screwing with their heads!"

Aizen let them go without a fuss, wondering how the hell they managed to deal with someone like _her_ on a daily basis.

* * *

Rukia and the others couldn't hold in their incredulous laughter. Not only had Adhara made Hueco Mundo a living hell for the Arrancar and Aizen, but the former shinigami actually begged not to bring her back.

(Well, all but Gin anyway, because he was usually drafted into Adhara's chaos.)

There had been a rather interesting development when Tatsuki was kidnapped. Within a few days of being taken, Snape ran into Unohana...and they just clicked.

He had found a girlfriend in the scariest woman in the soul society. She wished them the best of luck.

(Unohana had overheard about Kisuke's new partner in crime, and came to ask about healing potions. Snape was so used to dealing with Pomfrey that he offered to brew her some potions for free.)

* * *

Ulquiorra was bored. Ever since Adhara had returned to the Soul Society, things had wound down to the point where he was actually bored out of his mind.

Adhara had actually made Hueco Mundo _interesting_.

Grimmjow actually missed her too, if only for the chaos she caused. Which was why he was all for a visit the the world of the living just to see her again.

Ulquiorra exited outside the school...and was surprised to see the girl in a skirt, acting like a regular school girl.

It took until lunch when the girl finally spotted them. A grin flashed across her face before it vanished.

Once the school was over, she lead the two of them on a merry chase to an abandoned park.

"So what brings two of my favorite Espada here? Come to ask for more help in causing absolute chaos?"

Grimmjow laughed heartily. This was the reason why he loved hanging out with her. She caused untold amounts of chaos that only sake and migraine relievers could cure.

Even if she did get him a few times.

"We were bored," Ulquiorra said unexpectedly.

The grin she had on her face would inspire terror if it had been directed at the two of them.

"Oh? I can think of a few things you two can do..."

* * *

"AHHHHH!"

Tatsuki and Ulquiorra watched the horror unleashed as Shirosaki and Grimmjow went on an all out prank war against each other.

On Shirosaki's team was Orihime, Rukia, Hiyori and Uryu. Grimmjow had Nelliel and her brothers, Gin, and Wonderwiess. What that Espada was doing away from Tousen no one knew.

Meanwhile Ulquiorra was surprised to find himself on a date with the second strongest female in the Soul Society.

(The first being unequivocally Unohana. That woman was damn scary without trying!)

Of course they hadn't gone straight to the date. First he had to spar with her to prove he was worth her time. They had spent the better half of an hour fighting, without releasing their swords.

When he managed to pin her for more than five seconds, she had grinned and told him he had passed her test.

After that they had gone to a cafe, ignoring the screams of horror caused by Ichigo's hollow form and Grimmjow. Best of all the Soul Society couldn't complain because the two were more interested in pranking each other and not eating souls.

All in all the two had a good time, enjoying the sakuramochi she had found. It was rather peaceful, as long as you ignored the screams.

When night rolled around, the screaming died down...and Ulquiorra reluctantly took the Espada back to Hueco Mundo.

* * *

Orihime was thrilled to hear Tatsuki _finally_ had a boyfriend who wouldn't run from her. The fact that it was an Espada was a rather moot point.

Every so often Ulquiorra would appear and the two would go out. To say that the Soul Society had been surprised would be an understatement.

No one dared to complain about the arrangements because Adhara would react violently if they tried.

The fact that Ulquiorra acted like a gentleman every time actually helped his case. After their fourth date, Tatsuki shocked the stoic Espada with a kiss. She didn't know he could blush that hard!

* * *

Aizen was twitchy. Why?

Adhara had somehow managed to gain the allegiance of over half of his forces, including his favorite Espada Ulquiorra. To top it all off she didn't really try to make them join her, she did it without realizing it!

Though he did wonder why Ulquiorra had been humming lately...

Suddenly he heard screaming from Tousen's side.

"_MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP!"_

Twitching even more, he looked at the monitors...and shuddered.

It was a gigantic purple dinosaur, and for the love of all things holy it was singing the song that _**never**_ ends!

"_I love you, you love me..."_

It was definitely on a loop, because it just kept on singing the same asinine lines. Twitching even more, Aizen decided that for once, he would accept that weird bottle of pills Gin always had on hand.

Half and hour later, Aizen was high as a kite and still twitching whenever the dinosaur came near him.

"Pretty colors..." giggled Aizen.

Gin snickered. When Aizen finally returned to normal (after pissing off nearly the entire female population while high) he found that Gin had spread a new nickname around the base. And it wasn't God.

Upon learning his new nickname was permanently Twitchy, Aizen walked right back into Gin's room and dosed his tea with the pills again.

From then on, the tales of Twitchy the High Flying Shinigami were the favorite bedtime stories of the younger hollows and Espada. People would worship Twitchy whenever they got high, and sometimes he would appear to join them.

Needless to say Aizen's fan club loved the fact that the man would run around Hueco Mundo stark naked while giggling. Hinamori, when she saw this, finally lost her admiration of the man to the relief of her friends.

* * *

"So let me get this straight...because of Wonderweiss's favorite show, Aizen has gotten the nickname of Twitchy and the war ended before it even got underway?" asked Tatsuki.

"Szayel was bribed with candy to bring this...Barney...to life by Nelliel and Wonderweiss. Aizen, assuming it was one of your pranks, actually took Gin's...special...pills."

"Oh...my...god...!" Tatsuki managed to get out before she nearly died cackling.

"There's more... Aizen has been stealing these pills and streaking through Hueco Mundo. There is a rumor that if you chant the name Twitchy ten times, he will join you as long as you have something to get high on."

Tatsuki was pounding the floor, tears coming out of her eyes from laughing so hard.

"Hang on while I get a camera, I have to get this one on tape!"

For the next four days, Tatsuki and Ulquiorra used a modified dune buggy to chase Twitchy...er, Aizen...around Hueco Mundo. The man was surprisingly adept at avoiding the random spells and sharp pointy objects thrown at him by Tatsuki. Toshiro, when he heard about this, practically ran to her house and begged to join in.

Tatsuki had never seen him laugh so hard in her life. Especially when the two of them managed to get Aizen in a ballet costume complete with frills and bows.

Toshiro had a picture of _that_ in his office for the world to see. Upon the sight of it, Hinamori wondered how the hell she had looked up to the man. Toshiro couldn't have been happier with the results.

She was currently dating Kira from Squad three. Rumor had it Toshiro was courting Karin, Ichigo's younger sister.


	21. Chapter 21

"So, any idea why the Old Man called us up here at such an ungodly hour?" asked Tatsuki, yawning.

For some odd reason she had been called along with Yumechika and Ikkaku while Zaraki and Yachiru were off killing Hollows in the Rukon district again.

Ever since the Winter War ended so abruptly, she had started to sleep in when not on duty. It had gotten rather boring, to be frank. The only real excitement recently was the whole incident with the Valley of Screams.

She had joined in the last battle, but she didn't get any action other than that. It sucked!

"No idea. And since when were we called to sub for the captain?" complained Ikkaku.

"Something stinks about this, and for once I don't think it's fatso over there," said Tatsuki.

Soi Fon's lieutenant looked offended, but her glare shut him up before he complained.

He was fat.

Suddenly her attention was drawn to the lieutenant of Squad one...who passed out as soon as he crossed the bridge.

And then she heard it. A voice, whispering to her in the back of her head. She had experienced legilmency once, when she had heard about it. Snape had given her a crash course, and learned she had a rough shield around her mind courtesy of her spiritual power. It would rebuff all but the strongest sorcerers.

This almost felt like that, but the touch was different in many ways.

For one thing, she felt the clear sense of sadness and loneliness from it. It appeared to be calling out to her sword, but she no longer had a proper one since she released Kyoko back to her life.

That didn't mean she couldn't hang out with her sword spirit, it just meant she allowed her friend to live out her own life in the way she choose.

Her familiar had no problems pretending to be her sword.

The whispering grew more intent, as it tried to bring Kyoko out. Her familiar was a being of pure Time Magic, not spiritual powers. The whispering died down, but she could still hear the voice in her mind.

She could hear it crying out for a master who was gone...or sealed away.

She watched impassively as the zanpakuto escaped their partners control...and rebelled against them. She was the only one who didn't suffer from the fact.

"Kyoko, time to go all out!" she said with glee.

Kyoko roared, and turned into her true form. Her tail coiled around Tatsuki lazily, while her wings curled around her partner in a protective manner.

"Impossible. No zanpakuto should be able to avoid my control," said the mysterious figure.

_That voice...he's the one who is crying?_

"Kyoko isn't my zanpakuto. I let her go at her own wish. This is my familiar," said Tatsuki grinning. Finally, a worthy fight!

"No matter...The sword of a mere third seat is of no concern to me," said the figure.

"Third seat with a bankai that can kick your ass," said Tatsuki cheekily.

She ran, intending to end it immediately. She ended up blocked by what she assumed was Yumechika's sword spirit.

"Hello, peacock boya!" grinned Tatsuki.

Ruriro Kujaku grinned at her. She was one of the few he approved of, because she was the only person who had ever seen his real shikai form. She was only person Yumechika could relate to.

She ended up being thrown into the arms of Yumechika, and got up embarrassed. How the hell had that figure thrown her like that? She was the second strongest woman in the Soul Society!

(The first would always be Unohana, who was also the scariest woman around.)

* * *

By morning, only Tatsuki was able to function normally. The swords had gone completely berserk during the night, causing untold amounts of damage. It would take weeks to repair everything. Good thing the builders had lots of practice thanks to Ichigo and Zaraki running amok.

(Shirosaki too, but he was usually let out in Hueco Mundo where he teamed up with Grimmjow to cause havoc.)

All they knew was their opponent was named Muramasa. Byakuya had gone missing within hours of the attack. The last anyone saw of him, he was enveloped in a cloud of pink sword blades.

Tatsuki knew something was off about that, because he wouldn't go down so easily. She remembered hearing about a sword named Muramasa, but she couldn't remember where.

She went home to get ahold of Ichigo and to see if Rukia had survived the trip. Her sword had attempted to kill her while they were running.

Ulquiorra was with Ichigo and Rukia. The Espada had heard about the trouble the soul society was having and wanted to make sure it didn't spill over to their end.

"This Muramasa character is a pain in the ass," whined Tatsuki.

"Did you say Muramasa? By any chance did he had the spiritual pressure of a zanpakuto?" asked Ulquiorra.

"He did claim to be one...why?"

"A rogue zanpakuto has been seen repeatedly for several hundred years in Menos Forest. Supposedly he kills and devours their spiritual pressure, but no one has ever bothered to confirm it," said the Espada.

"I think he was crying," said Tatsuki suddenly.

"Huh?" seemed to be the answer to that statement.

"I could hear someone crying in my head. When the guy spoke I realized it was him. I think he's been alone for a long time," said Tatsuki.

"And I bet he tried to take over, didn't he?" grinned Ichigo.

"Tried and failed. Kyoko went back to her family almost a year ago," grinned Tatsuki.

"Dear lord...you cause enough damage _without_ your sword, I don't want to see what you could do _with_ a sword," said Rukia.

Tatsuki grinned.

"Imagine what I can do once I sync up with my familiar," she said ominously. Rukia shuddered.

She had _seen_ Kyoko. She didn't want to see what would happen when Kyoko the dragon and Adhara/Tatsuki joined forces.

"We'll go in the morning. Rukia, if you try to leave early I will stun you and leave your sorry ass in the care of Unohana. Am I clear?"

Rukia winced. She didn't want to cross either of them.

"Agreed."

* * *

Tatsuki went with Ichigo when she discovered Rukia had left before them. She was going to stun the girl and leave her ass to Unohana's mercy.

They split up, and it was Ichigo who found Rukia first.

Tatsuki arrived in time to help Rukia regain her sword. Muramasa tried to get Sode no Shiroyuki to leave, but Tatsuki kept him away from the sword.

Rukia would later awaken in Squad Four, with her sword back to normal.

* * *

Muramasa attempted to control Tatsuki's sword again, this time targeting specifically. He was shocked to see that her sword was in fact a fake to keep appearances...and that she had released the spirit which was in it to return to her family.

Something about that bothered Muramasa a great deal, which was why he gave the order to all the zanpakuto to kill her on sight.

Only to find them staring at him like he was insane.

"We'll fight our former masters, but there is no way you'll get us to fight _her_," said Haineko bluntly.

"What?" said Muramasa, taken aback. His power allowed him to control other zanpakuto to the point of killing their masters.

Senbonzakura handed Muramasa a picture of a soul reaper...and it was very obvious the man was high.

"Former squad five captain Sosuke Aizen. He used to be the Soul Society's greatest rival for power after he stole an object of power...until he was stupid enough to kidnap Adhara of Squad Eleven. She broke him," he said simply.

"What object of power?"

"It was called the Hogyoku. It's power could turn a hollow into an Espada. Aizen was about to go to war with the Soul Society until she broke him. After that he became known as Twitchy," said Tobiyume.

"How...did she break him?" asked Muramasa finally.

"She pranked him for a week straight. Then she undermined his entire attack force by slowly getting the Espada to switch to her side without actually trying," they all said in unison.

Muramasa blinked. He hadn't expected them to answer like that.

"Exactly how dangerous is she?"

"She doesn't use her sword during a fight. She doesn't need to," said Ruriro Kujaku.

"What?"

"Fourth Seat Adhara...is the only soul reaper who kills hollows with her fists. She's also the only female in squad eleven," said Senbonzakura.

"She has an unusual power that she rarely uses unless she's pranking someone," said Haineko.

"She also gives the female soul reapers free hair cuts once a month," said Tobiyume.

Muramasa looked at her. He didn't need to know that.

(Tatsuki was rather adept at cutting hair, even though hers refused to grow out until recently. So once a month she would cut the other girl's hair for free. Though they usually left a good tip for her instead.)

"Come to think of it, we've never seen her zanpakuto. She usually stayed inside the inner world," said Haineko.

Muramasa was a bit taken aback. Zanpakuto could see other sword spirits, but not if they stayed in their inner world all the time. Most soul reapers didn't know their partners walked beside them invisible to their eyes.

He was the only one who ever bothered to materialize completely.

* * *

"How the hell did you get caught Zanny?" asked Tatsuki amused.

Zangetsu glared at her. It was bad enough Shirosaki called him that when he was hyper, he didn't need her doing it too!

(She had called him Shirosaki once, and the name had stuck.)

Zangetsu had no problems with Tatsuki. She was one of the few people who he actually liked, and she supplied him with the best liquor he had ever had. He was a fun drunk, according to Ichigo.

(Though Ichigo still had nightmares of the time he caught Zangetsu smoking something he didn't want to know the name of with Twitchy. Shirosaki had been with him too, and he still ran screaming.)

Ichigo soon lost consciousness, and Shirosaki took control. He nodded to Tatsuki with a grin, and she held up a bag of candy.

"Two bags of frogs if you take out Zanny and leave him (she nodded to Muramasa) to me," she smirked.

"_Deal!"_

The fight soon moved, and it wasn't until Ichigo retook control that things really got interesting.

Muramasa wanted to know more about Shirosaki. And he was willing to break Ichigo to do it. It was with the combined power of Shirosaki and Ichigo that threw Muramasa out.

So Muramasa tried his trick again...this time he went after Tatsuki. Zangetsu kept Ichigo busy while he delved into the mind of the only female to survive Squad 11.

* * *

Muramasa blinked. This wasn't the world he was expecting at all. It was like he was in the Squad barracks on a lazy summer day. The temperature around him was just right for dozing all afternoon away under the trees.

And such trees!

Cherry Blossoms in full bloom, thick evergreens, rich mahogany, full holly and of course, apples.

There was even a garden (it was replica of the one outside her room, and anyone dumb enough to wreck it had to replant each flower by hand and take care of it for a week. That was enough to keep her squad from harming it.) that was tastefully decorated. The rich scents of the flowers hung in the air, but it wasn't overpowering.

He went into the room just outside the garden.

It was not what he expected either. It was rather plain, but it lead into the most interesting rooms. One was full of books, another with music, chimes, and the one that really drew his attention...had five glass cases.

Three had what appeared to be school clothes, though two were rather colorful compared to the plain gray one. The two colorful ones radiated with power, a power he had never felt before.

The fourth had a standard shihakusho, with the emblem for squad eleven.

But it was the fifth that had him staring.

It was a dress, but unlike one had ever seen before. It seemed to clash with the tomboy personality the girl he had met. The case was chained, but they were rather loose.

Clearly she didn't like using it.

He went into the next room and found her.

"I'm guessing you saw the others, may as well give you the rest of the tour," she said dryly.

"Not many have such detailed worlds, let alone bother to fill them," he said.

"You try sitting in meditation for hours on end. It's rather boring, and filling the rooms killed time."

Muramasa followed her to the secondary world she created for Tatsuki, which seemed to be rather bland compared to Adhara.

Then he came across a room locked tightly.

"That...belonged to Kyoko. She lets me use it now to control the powers she gave to me. I let her go because she wanted to live with her family again," said Tatsuki, almost sad.

"You...didn't abandon her?"

"I would never abandon a friend. She was part of the family, and she still comes around time to time pretending to be my cousin. But she wasn't meant to be a zanpakuto, and I wasn't going to hold her back."

Muramasa left her inner world, thoroughly confused. Tatsuki Arisawa, better known as Adhara Potter around the world, was nothing like he expected.

A tomboy and a fighter, yet her inner world was full of soothing plants. She had only one outfit that wasn't girly, and it was clear that the others (aside from that odd dress) were more used.

"Who or what are you?" he asked.

"I am the infamous Time Sorceress. I just prefer being a soul reaper because that way I don't get dumb requests," she grinned.

"How did you break a captain without killing him or torturing him?"

"I pranked him with the help of others. Breaking him wasn't even my fault. Two of the younger Espada bribed another to bring their favorite show to life, and he snapped. It wasn't my fault that dinosaur was singing the song that never ends," she answered cheekily.

"Singing dinosaur?" he asked, pausing.

Tatsuki stopped, and grinned evilly.

"Are you sure you want to know? He's hard enough to listen to while babysitting..."

"On second thought, forget about it," he said quickly. He didn't like the look in her eyes.

* * *

"So out of all the soul reapers, only Ichigo and Renji have gotten their swords back?" asked Tatsuki.

"What about you, Adhara-san?" asked Unohana.

"I let Kyoko go home almost a year ago. She wasn't born to be a zanpakuto, and I wasn't going to force her to," said Tatsuki.

"It's not like you ever used her that much anyway," said Ikkaku.

"Why would I need to? I'm strong enough without forcing her to fight with her powers. She hates fighting, which is why I rarely if every used her. Pranks she could deal with, fighting never."

Kyoko slithered up to Tatsuki's neck.

"This Kyoko, on the other hand, doesn't mind fighting so long as I feed her. I've been using her to fight with a sword," said Tatsuki.

She hissed, and curled closer to her partner. Tatsuki didn't mind sharing body heat.

Tatsuki ran with Ichigo, having heard that Byakuya was in the area. He had been missing for nearly a week since last seen fighting his sword.

Something was wrong, and she intended to get to the bottom of it. She slowed down, and decided to try another approach.

She was going to use her powers to see into the past and locate the missing captain. Then she was going to force the answers out of him.

He wouldn't be missing unless he didn't want to be found.

She found where he was, and slipped into the time stream without Ichigo noticing until ten minutes later. He kept going, knowing she would catch up eventually. With his crappy control, he wasn't too hard to find.

* * *

Byakuya found himself stuck. It wasn't because his foot was caught by something, that he could deal with.

It was because for some reason he couldn't move his body, at all. He used his eyes to try and find why.

Adhara walked out of the wooded area slightly annoyed.

"If you had stayed still long enough, I wouldn't have had to use that trick on you," she said irritated.

Senbonzakura appeared, intending to free his partner.

"Back off. I want answers, and I'll let you go once you give me honest ones. Why have you been missing for the past week?"

"I can't tell you."

"Does it have anything to do with why Muramasa has no master?" she asked.

Byakuya said nothing, but his eyes told the truth.

"I thought as much. I found it odd he was wandering around without a partner, but if something happened that would explain it. I'm guessing his master was a Kuchiki then?"

"How did you...?"

"Logic. The only reason I could see for you to even involve yourself personally to the point that you abandon your sister and squad would be if it involved your clan. Your honor would allow nothing less."

"He is a traitor that was sealed nearly four centuries ago after the end of the civil war. He went berserk and my grandfather and Captain Yamamoto had to seal him off. Muramasa was his sword."

"And now he wants to free his master, am I right? I was wondering why I kept hearing that sword crying out in loneliness," she said calmly.

"You...you can hear him?"

"Clear as day. Every time I run into him I hear his soul crying out in pain and loneliness. Would you like some help to find his master?"

"How could you help?"

"Break into Yamamoto's personal office and look at his journals. With all the confusion no one would know it was me and you can find the rogue faster."

"How will I find you?"

"I'll find you. Every step you take, I can find you with ease. It doesn't help that I can look into the past and slip into the time stream whenever I want. I'll let you know when I find where he is," she said, releasing him.

"Why weren't you affected earlier?"

"My original zanpakuto is actually a goddess of time. I didn't want to keep her from her family, so I let her go home. My familiar has been standing in since then," she shrugged.

Byakuya went back to his original destination. He was going to remain by Muramasa until either Adhara found Koga or he did. Either way the embarrassment of the Kuchiki clan would be taken care of.


	22. Chapter 22

She ran hard. She had no time to invoke her powers, now that Muramasa had found his master. She had read the reports Yamamoto had about the man, and she already knew this would end in heartbreak if she didn't do something.

Muramasa was too kind to have lived in such cruel times. Perhaps she could heal what this Koga had done to him.

She got the distinct feeling Koga, in his last days as a soul reaper, had abused Muramasa to the point where he couldn't hear the sword's voice anymore.

It wasn't advertised much, but anyone could use a soul reaper's zanpakuto if the sword agreed to it. She knew for a fact that Tousen's sword used to belong to a friend who was killed by her abusive husband.

The reason it wasn't advertised was because the soul reapers had enough trouble with the regular populace. If it was known they could become soul reapers by taking the sword and using it's power for themselves, there would be no end of trouble.

She found the trail she was looking for, and cursed.

It lead to outside Karakura. For reasons she was trying to find, everything supernatural seemed to gravitate to Karakura for some reason. She didn't think it had anything to do with the fact that the town was a spiritual hotspot. Or the fact that the Kurosaki clan lived there.

Something seemed to draw things to the town itself, and by extension Ichigo.

She jumped through the portal, racing against a clock she only sensed, rather than felt.

Her feet touched the sky, and she was running towards a light she could see in the distance. Ichigo's light always appeared bright white mixed with a reddish black. Rukia was a pale white color she always associated with snow.

Muramasa was there, with a sickened yellow light she didn't recognize. She ran harder.

The sound of sword against sword was heard, and Ichigo stared.

"Tatsuki! How did you get here so quickly?"

"I ran..." she gasped. She had never run so hard.

She looked at the being before her. He didn't seem like a soul reaper anymore, let alone human. His body seemed wasted, as if he hadn't eaten in years, possibly centuries. His eyes were a sickly green color, almost like raw sewage.

It was vastly different from her bright emerald color, or Ulquiorra's light emerald.

His eyes held insanity and darkness. There would be no reasoning with him, only death.

"Leave him alone, creep!" she snarled.

"Like I need a useless weapon!" he said with a sneer.

"The only useless one here...is _you!" _she said with a growl, as she forced Koga to get back.

Koga and Tatsuki clashed blades, until he went to break Muramasa. The sword was watching the fight with despair...he had hoped Koga still cared about him as a partner.

He had never wanted to admit how far the man had fallen. He had never wanted to see how much the man allowed his pride to overrule his sanity.

Tatsuki yelled, then surprised the insane soul reaper with an uppercut. The shock of that hit caused him to drop his guard enough for her to nail him in the unmentionables.

He gasped as he dropped the sword. Tatsuki grabbed Muramasa before Koga could use him to harm the spirit.

Koga grabbed one of the blades nearby, and tried to impale her...only to be blocked by Senbonzakura's petals.

"I'll leave him to you, Byakuya-taicho! Let me deal with Muramasa!"

Koga's attention was drawn to Byakuya, and his rage by the so called betrayal caused him to focus entirely on the man.

* * *

Muramasa was on the ground. Koga had pierced him, but the cut wasn't too deep.

"Ne, Muramasa... What do you see in that guy as a partner anyway?"

"He wasn't always like this..."

"No one is. But sometimes pride gets in the way and turns good men into monsters. I don't think he'll even try to hear you anymore."

"He's all I have."

"Now who said that? If you try, I'm fairly sure you'd be able to find someone who can hear you," said Ichigo.

Tatsuki said nothing.

"Didn't you say to the others that you heard someone crying?" asked Rukia. She had overheard that odd tidbit.

Muramasa stared at her in shock. She had heard him crying from all the pain he had?

Inside his inner world, Muramasa would allow the pain he felt from being unable to connect to his partner out. The tears of blood were a side effect from eating the hollows he needed to sustain his ability to materialize.

Tatsuki watched as Senbonzakura saved his partner. She had never had that sort of relationship with Kyoko, or even her familiar. The goddess of time wasn't meant to be a soul reaper's sword partner.

"What would you say, Muramasa, to being my partner?" asked Tatsuki.

"Why would you want a broken sword like me as a partner?" he asked.

Koga's abuse had hurt him deeply. Finding out that the man would have broken his sword had Tatsuki not stopped him only made his pain worse.

"I don't see a broken sword. I see someone who needs a friend he can trust," said Tatsuki kindly, "After all...Every time I saw you I could hear someone crying their heart out."

Muramasa was still in pain, and the hollows he had absorbed over the centuries didn't help. Even if he wanted to become her sword, he knew it was impossible without getting killed.

Hollows and Soul Reapers normally didn't mix that well, Kurosaki aside.

Any thoughts of being unclean or worthless went out the window when Tatsuki did the one thing no one expected.

She hugged him to her chest, and let him cry. By the time the tears finally ran out, he found himself in her inner world. He had become a ball of white light that went inside her soul, and she quickly went after him to make sure he got settled in properly.

While she was inside her inner world, outside was in chaos.

By becoming her sword, all the hollows he had devoured (and kept in check) came out in a blast of energy. Tatsuki was protected by her dragon wings, but Ichigo and the others were left to deal with the Menos that Muramasa had accumulated.

* * *

_Inside Tatsuki's inner world..._

Muramasa found that a new room had appeared, one that connected her to the inner world he had become used to. Though he had to admit, being able to sleep on an actual bed instead of those blasted pillars was a blessing. The scene he was so used to was now a painting above his head, which means all he would have to do was lay back and he would be able to see it. His room had a peaceful blue wallpaper, and his bed was so comfortable that all he wanted to do at the moment was sleep. On one side of the wall was a large bookcase, where he could keep the books he borrowed from Tatsuki's rather extensive library.

She had even added a music player for him to use, which he would have to learn how to use.

Where Koga's inner world had been bleak and foreboding, hers was warm and welcoming. He had done everything in his power to control others with his ability, she went out of her way to avoid using her abilities.

He could honestly say he preferred her methods to Koga's. Being born during a time of war wasn't an excuse for his former master either.

Tatsuki had been born into a war that wasn't her own, and she had ended it and helped a community move forward by taking out the biggest threat to change.

(While Minerva McGonagall was set in her ways, she was willing to listen. It was because of that fact that the European communities were finally getting rid of the blood prejudice.)

* * *

When Tatsuki came out of her world, she found Ichigo and Rukia having some issues with the Menos.

Apparently some of the older hollows her sword had eaten had banded together to form what appeared to be a crude Espada class one. She winced.

"Oi! Ichigo!" she called out.

"He alright?"

"He settled in fine, but what are you going to do with that Espada type?"

"What?"

Ichigo hadn't even noticed it? Neither had Rukia if the look she was giving it was any indication.

"You two get rid of those Menos before it tries to use them to boost it's own power. I'll deal with it," she yelled at them.

Tatsuki brought Kyoko to her arm, and said _"Strike through the stream of time, Jikanryu no Kyoko!"_

It had been so long since she used her bankai, that she actually forgot about her one issue with it.

The dress!

Ichigo and Rukia had shielded their eyes when the light came, but they couldn't help but stare at the dress Tatsuki was now wearing.

Every combatant stopped what they were doing when they heard the feminine scream of absolute rage from her when she realized that yes, she was stuck with the damn dress again.

(On the outside of the battlefield, Uryu snapped a few pictures of it, and came up with a plan for revenge against all the pranks Tatsuki played on him. She hated wearing dresses, and this was the perfected payback!)

"DAMMIT ALL TO HELL!" she roared.

The wings on her back allowed her to take flight, and she worked out her anger at being forced into the dress again on the hollows.

The poor faux Espada class didn't stand a chance in hell when faced with a PMS-ing, rage-induced Tatsuki who was stuck in an outfit she really didn't like wearing, no matter how good she looked in it.

Ichigo, Rukia and Byakuya stared in absolute shock at what she was wearing. The fact that it was her bankai state wasn't helping matters either.

By the time she had worked out her anger (and gotten rid of the hormonal backlash that was usually associated with her monthly cycle) there wasn't a hollow to be found.

Ichigo and Rukia were actually cowering behind Byakuya, who really looked like he wanted to do the same if Tatsuki even looked his way.

Koga, the traitorous bastard, was actually flinching because of the look she sent his way.

And right now he was really hoping it was _Byakuya_ who actually killed him, and not the hormonal female.

* * *

After the entire Koga incident (where Byakuya was forgiven for his supposed defect because Yamamoto remembered it was Koga's fault in the first place) Tatsuki waited an entire month before introducing her new sword.

People were both paranoid and shocked to learn she had somehow gained the very sword that had caused the entire mess in the first place, though they were hard put to be that angry at him.

Over the week she had him, Muramasa had a very surprising change in personality.

And a new wardrobe. Tatsuki had disliked the cloak since it looked so old fashioned (and not in a good way).

She had ditched the old coat, and gave him a lighter jacket. He usually left it open to display his sleeveless shirt (sort of like Edward Elric's shirt under his jacket). His belt buckle was actually the hilt of his sword, which he rather liked. He had a pair of black jeans that ended at his ankles. His shoes were a pair of zori.

But the biggest change had to be his hairstyle.

Originally it had gone all over the place, and was rather untamed.

Tatsuki had gone up to him with an evil gleam in her eyes...and with the help of Haineko and Tobiume had tied him up long enough to attack his hair with her special clippers. The two had been glad to set aside their differences long enough to get back at him for the fact he had tricked them.

Where his long locks had hung, they were now tamed by a hair tye that Tatsuki kept with her at all times. His hair was roughly a third of it's original length, though she had left the two strands that framed his face.

Another surprising change was that he no longer had bags under his eyes, and his skin tone had deepened to roughly the same shade as Ichigo's. Well, that and for some odd reason he de-aged to roughly seventeen.

To the shock of the girls, Muramasa was actually quite a looker after Tatsuki was through with him. And being able to actually sleep mellowed him out.

The newly reformed Central 46 was smart enough not to complain about her new sword.

Of course it might have had something to do with the fact that Tatsuki had threatened to rip their balls off if they tried anything or attempted to take Muramasa from her.

Tatsuki while on PMS was a force to be feared. Zaraki and Kurotsuchi would never go anywhere near a PMS-ing Tatsuki, especially if she hadn't anything to help with the cramps.

* * *

Ulquiorra wasn't happy, and it wasn't hard to figure out why.

He had the most minor pangs of jealousy over her new sword. Muramasa was around her age now, and he was rather attractive. The fact that he shared her inner world didn't help either.

Tatsuki wasn't oblivious to the look her boyfriend shot Muramasa. Thankfully he had been reading a book and didn't notice it.

"Mind explaining the evil eye, bat boy?"

"I don't like it."

Tatsuki grinned evilly.

"Oh-ho! Doom and Gloom actually feels jealousy over my new partner!"

Ulquiorra shifted a bit. He didn't like the evil grin she had on her face.

"Did you ever get back at Uryu for that joke with the dress?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Oh, I got him back alright. Just ask Grimmjow. He helped me lug the twit into that room. Spoon boy helped me find a good shop with yaoi books in it."

"Why yaoi?"

"Ichigo doesn't like me mentioning this, but he accidentally borrowed one of my yaoi books once and got hooked," she laughed.

"How do you accidentally borrow yaoi?" asked Muramasa, finally paying attention.

"He borrows hentai from me all the time, and they both have adult only stickers. It didn't help that the cover had a really effeminate boy on it."

Ulquiorra snickered.

"How did glasses react?" asked Ulquiorra.

"I've never seen someone's face turn that red. Though at least he's loosened up after dealing with a bored and horny Ichigo for a week straight."

"How did you keep people from realizing they were missing for a week?"

"Magical doppelgangers are _very_ useful."

* * *

Tatsuki had been drafted by Toshiro to help out with the Ouin. She had become so bored lately that she was threatening a repeat of the pranks she pulled in Hueco Mundo.

After hearing some of the things she did, Yamamoto had no issues with her being turned into a temporary squad ten member.

"Still beats sleeping for three hours straight during the day," she grumbled.

She was up with Toshiro, keeping an eye on the fast moving cloud. It was moving against the wind, which made the thing far too obvious.

"So what exactly is this thing, aside from a glorified paperweight?" she asked.

"How do you know that?" he asked.

"Overheard some of the pomps talking about it," she shrugged.

Tatsuki had had words with some of the royal procession when they heard she was actually on loan from squad eleven. Not only were the surprised a woman survived that atmosphere, but they had made several crass remarks.

They had walked away from that 'discussion' with their family jewels being shoved inward. Toshiro had pretended not to hear the delegate complain about the incident.

Everything was going on as usual...until the procession was attacked by fire and lightning.

Tatsuki grinned evilly.

"FINALLY! SOME ACTION!"

She went toe to toe with the lightning girl, while Toshiro went after the Ouin.

Tatsuki's attention was diverted when she heard him cry out. He had been stabbed in the stomach.

He vanished before anyone could help him.

She left after Soi Fon arrived, determined to warn Ichigo. And found the missing captain asleep in his room.

* * *

Toshiro awoke with alarm to find Tatsuki over him, wrapping his wound in bandages.

He didn't care that she was treating his wound (she lived in the 11th, which meant she wasn't embarrassed by something like that) he cared that she had found him. In Ichigo's house. After Soi Fon had been looking for him.

"Relax Snowy. I'm not turning you in...if you tell me why you went into hiding," she said.

"I can't..."

She gave him a firm look.

"Toshiro, Byakuya trusted me during the Muramasa incident to help him find the traitor. Now give me one good reason why you can't do the same?"

"Fine."

And so Toshiro explained while Tatsuki did her best to heal the damage done. All he really needed was to mention it was a ruling of the Central 46, and she held up a hand.

"They killed someone before a fight could establish a proper victor, didn't they?"

Toshiro blinked, but he nodded.

"And now the guy is pissed, and it's up to you to finish the fight fairly. That the gist of it?"

"Pretty much."

"Figures. It seems like almost every ruling they make comes back to bite us in the ass," she said.

Toshiro actually grinned. It was a fair description.

"I'll help keep the wolves off your back, but you'll have to deal with the paperwork," she grinned.


End file.
